On January 15, 2012, Octavia Spencer won Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Globe Awards. Considered a strong character actress for over a decade, Spencer was finally on everyone’s radar thanks to her powerful performance as Milly in “The Help.” As she shared in an interview with The Independent, “It took me 15 years to become an overnight success.” After her rousing acceptance speech at the Globes, she took home the Best Supporting Actress Oscar a month later. Since then, Spencer has solidified her star status, thanks to her stellar performances in films including, “Fruitvale Station,” “Hidden Figures” and “The Shape of Water.”
Spencer was born and raised in Montgomery, AL. The sixth of seven children, she lost both of her parents at a young age. However, while alive, Spencer’s mom encouraged her daughter to pursue her dreams. In an interview, Spencer shared, “My mom taught us that we could do or be anything we dared to dream.”
After graduating from Auburn University in 1994, Spencer did not originally plan on pursuing an acting career. However, she took a behind-the-scenes film job assisting a casting agent. A year later, she scored her first on-screen role in “A Time To Kill.” She was working as a production assistant on the film when director Joel Schumacher asked Spencer to audition for a minor role in the film that starred Matthew McConaughey and Sandra Bullock. She became best friends with film assistant, Tate Taylor. Sixteen years later, Taylor went on to write and direct “The Help” and cast Spencer in her award-winning role.
Set in a 1960s Southern town, “The Help” explores the lives of white housewives and their African-American maids. Aside from being the vehicle that helped Spencer win an Oscar and a Golden Globe, “The Help” was also a commercial success at the box office. In her Golden Globes acceptance speech, Spencer thanked the Hollywood Foreign Press for recognizing “domestics in this country, now and then” and quoted the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr: “All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance.” She delivered yet another inspiring speech when she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, saying, “I hope that in some way that I can be some sort of beacon of hope, especially because I am not the typical Hollywood beauty.”
Spencer continues to receive popular and critical acclaim for her acting roles. In 2017, Spencer received Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for her role as Dorothy Vaughan in the biopic, “Hidden Figures.” She was the first African-American actress to be nominated for an Academy Award after having already won one. If Spencer is nominated for a third Academy Award for her role in “The Shape of Water,” it will make her the second black actress in history to earn three Oscar nominations. Viola Davis, Spencer’s friend, set the record just last year.
Spencer continues to inspire us with her roles and achievements. Always using her platform to speak her truth, it is important to have role models like her in Hollywood!