OCTAVIA SPENCER WINS AN ACADEMY AWARD FOR HER ROLE IN “THE HELP”

 Photo by Miki Turner
ACADEMY AWARD-WINNER OCTAVIA SPENCER

The 84th Academy Awards, hosted by Billy Crystal, took place last night at the Hollywood and Highland Center in Hollywood.

Fingers were crossed for history to be made with the possibility of two black actresses, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, respectively, walking off with golden statuettes for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for their roles in “The Help”!

Alas, it was not to be!

But there was still joy in Oscarville as Octavia Spencer walked away with the coveted award for her role as Minnie, the no-nonsense, chocolate pie-making maid in The Help. 

Viola Davis was bested by Meryl Streep, who walked away with the golden trophy for her mesmerizing portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady”.

Spencer who was emotional as she walked on stage, received a thunderous applause and a standing ovation from her colleagues.

Asked if she could sum up the awards season and talk about her love affair with The Help, Spencer didn't hold back.

EMMA STONE, OCTAVIA SPENCER & VIOLA DAVIS 

in "THE HELP"

 “Well, the word I want to use, I can’t,” she said. “It’s a word in the well, I want to say fan effing tastic. But we'll just leave the effing out.  Fantastic.  it is humbling.  It is the love affair I've had with "The Help".  I'm a benefactor of all of the riches that the real life Minnys, Aibileens, Constantines, Skeeters, Celias, that they basically repeated.  And so I am,  I'm very humble because I get to stand here and accept this award and I haven't really done anything.  So I don't know.  That's a tough question to answer.  Sorry.” 

While she is content to be in front of the camera, Spencer has some other career choices.

“I guess you know what, I want to be a producer,” she said.  “I want to be an activist.  I want to be proactive in bringing about work for men, women, boys, girls, everybody who is good at what they do and deserve a shot at it.  So I think my role, I want to have a presence both behind the scenes and in front of the camera.  So I can't say on one particular thing, so I'll just name them all.  I'll be the jack of all trades and hopefully decent at one of them.”