TIFF: Festival goers were treated to a sneak peak at the upcoming Hidden Figures. The film is based on the true story of three African-American women who worked at NASA in the 1960s: Katherine G. Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe). The trio helped launch astronaut John Glenn into space at a time when bathrooms were still segregated, few women were welcomed in careers rooted in mathematics, and workplace sexism existed.
When I interviewed Henson this past May, she said, “That was the hardest thing for me in life. I am not mathematically wired. She is the polar opposite of everything you’ve ever seen me do. Everything. She is a genius. She’s a mathematician. She sees numbers in the sky. She doesn’t speak unless she has something to say. She’s a very proper woman, and she was hard to play. I’m notch ten in my personal life.
I leave this character who speaks her mind, and then you take me to Katherine [Johnson] where I have two lines in three pages. When I got home, I felt like I’d just worked out because I had to sit on all of that energy. There are scenes with racial tension, and I couldn’t say anything? That was a workout.” She added she didn’t know about Johnson before she accepted the role adding, “When I took it on, that’s when I started to hear about her. It was interesting. The movie was perfect timing. I remember reading the script and asking if she was still alive, if so, I wanted to meet her. I remember how regal she was, and how smart she was without saying anything. She was very sharp. She’s 97 1/2. What I found interesting was that, I’m a people watcher, so I was scanning her room, and I saw that she had two Scrabble games under her sofa. I thought to myself, she’s still challenging her brain to think. I wouldn’t even want to play Scrabble with her. She’d make me look stupid.”
The special screening was followed by an outdoor concert featuring Pharrell Williams. Watch Williams perform, I see a Victory from the film below, and check out photos from the screening.
Hidden Figures is on general release from January 13, 2017
