America has been taking strides to better the unequally structured justice system. With a change in society comes a change in Hollywood. The industry and actors struggling against being typecast have made an effort to change how things are done. They are asking for more roles for African-Americans, lead roles for African-American women and more.
The path toward a diverse industry heightened with the film, Hidden Figures. Starring Octavia Spencer, Taraji P. Henson, and Janelle Monae, the film tells an historical tale of three female African-American mathematicians, who served as the brains behind NASA’s Friendship 7 mission. Their skill and calculations helped John Glen become the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth in 1962.
“I thought it was fiction. I thought, ‘Wow, this is a great story that needs to be told because we haven’t seen black women from that era portrayed in that way,’” Spencer said at a panel. “When I found out it was true, it hurt me to the core. That they were left out of the retelling of history and they made contributions to history. It’s not just black women, it’s also women. They had an entire department of women.”
Spencer felt touched by the story and felt it was an important one to tell.
