The Director of 'Hidden Figures' on How His Movie Changed Him Forever

[HAB911]

Sometimes you do save the best for last, and in the case of Hidden Figures, the final day’s shoot came with a wallop.

Playing a Black mathematician at NASA in the early 1960s, Taraji P. Henson scrambles into the office, disheveled and dripping rain, only to be chastised by her boss (Kevin Costner) for the length of her absence. Henson starts off cool, explaining that every time she has to use the restroom, she must run half a mile to the “colored” bathrooms. “Did you know that?” she asks. It’s here that her voice blooms into a beautiful, calibrated rage, each syllable unloading a year of mistreatment. “I work like a dog day and night. Living off the coffee from a pot that none of you want to touch,” she screams. The character regains her composure, though the room, filled with dozens of white men, stills with shock. Cut!

Which is when everyone on set burst into applause.

http://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/the-director-of-hidden-figures-on-how-his-movie-changed-him-forever/75625?utm_source=dd&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=02152017&variable=9d91d2d18ffb4c5a3c26fdf0d50dd20e

[qwlauren35]

1. Finally saw the movie

I was yelling and cheering at each victory. And there were so many. Like at the end when the Kirsten Dunst character calls the Octavia Spencer character by her last name. After having to share a bathroom with her, and clearly freaking out. Or when the Spencer character gets the FORTRAN book.

My gawd, it was good.