Actress Bryce Dallas Howard said she would not star in the 2011 movie “The Help” if the role were offered to her today given the current climate on race relations.
Though “The Help” won Octavia Spencer an Oscar – becoming the sixth black woman to take home the gold statue behind Hattie McDaniel, Whoopi Goldberg, Halle Berry, Jennifer Hudson, and Mo’Nique – actress Bryce Dallas Howard believes the movie is tainted by the fact it was told through the lens of white people with mostly white storytellers.
Asked by the Los Angeles Times for an interview published Wednesday if she would “still make ‘The Help’ today,” Howard said, “No.”
“But what I will say is: What I’ve seen is that folks have the courage to say that. ‘With all due respect, I love this project, I do not think you could be the filmmaker,'” she continued. “That’s a really powerful thing to say. That’s an important stance to take in order to make room for the true authentic storytellers. … In this transformation that’s happening, there’s a new freedom of expression. I’m seeing from others — and feeling from myself — that it is less about worrying about offending people and looking within and saying, ‘Why? What really am I scared of, and what is that reinforcing?’ And so I posted it and didn’t look back.”
In an Instagram post earlier this month, the “Jurassic World” actress responded to reports that “The Help” was the number one movie on Netflix. Though she appreciated the fandom, she recommended they watch other race-themed movies – the kind that provides what she suggested are less “fictional” portrayals of race relations – instead of “The Help.”
“I’ve heard that [The Help] is the most viewed film on [Netflix] right now! I’m so grateful for the exquisite friendships that came from that film — our bond is something I treasure deeply and will last a lifetime,” the actress and director said in her post. “This being said, ‘The Help’ is a fictional story told through the perspective of a white character and was created by predominantly white storytellers. We can all go further.”
“Stories are a gateway to radical empathy and the greatest ones are catalysts for action,” she continued. “If you are seeking ways to learn about the Civil Rights Movement, lynchings, segregation, Jim Crow, and all the ways in which those have an impact on us today, here are a handful of powerful, essential, masterful films and shows that center Black lives, stories, creators, and/or performers.”
Actress Viola Davis, who was nominated for an Oscar for “The Help,” recently told The New York Times that she wishes the movie explored the black characters more.
“I just felt that at the end of the day that it wasn’t the voices of the maids that were heard. I know [my character] Aibileen. I know [Octavia Spencer’s character] Minny. They’re my grandma. They’re my mom,” Davis said. “And I know that if you do a movie where the whole premise is, I want to know what it feels like to work for white people and to bring up children in 1963, I want to hear how you really feel about it. I never heard that in the course of the movie.”
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