Hollywood starlet Taraji P. Henson attended the Chicago International Film Festival, talking her new role as NASA’s math genius, space scientist and American physicist Katherine Johnson, at a panel discussion.
AMC Theater, the Streeterville theater located in downtown Chicago, hosted the red carpet event, where media and ticket holders previewed 25-minutes of 20th Century Fox’s new film, Hidden Figures, and a Q&A with the Golden Globe winning actress, emceed by producer, director and actress Regina Taylor.
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Hidden Figures, starring Henson, Octavia Spencer (The Help, Fruitvale Station, Zootopia) and singer turned actress Janelle Monae (Moonlight, Rio 2) details the powerful untold story of visionary trio Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn, played by Spencer and Mary Jackson (Monae,) as incredibly intelligent African American women at NASA, who served as the brains behind one of America’s historic missions, launching astronaut John Glenn into space.
The ladies crossed all gender and race lines, leaving a legacy for all generations to dream big.
At the Chicago panel, also home to FOX’s Empire filming, Henson described meeting Johnson, who she stated saw the movie and loved it. Despite an early Oscar buzz, the Washington, D.C. native isn’t fazed by the pressure, stating that as long as Johnson was happy with the movie, that was all that mattered.
Katherine Johnson – NASA Mathematician
Katherine Johnson in 2008
Hidden Figures opens nationwide on Christmas Day.
Photo credit: Juan Anthony Images
