We’ve read Viola Davis’ take on the project… some of it anyway. Go HERE if you missed that post. Today, we’ve got her co-star, Octavia Spencer, who plays one of the film’s lead characters, the bold and cantankerous maid Minnie.

The question asked by Rebecca Murray of About.com was: “There was some criticism about a white woman writing about African American characters, and then you’ve got a white man directing a movie about women of different races. What’s your take on the issue?“

And Octavia Spencer’s response: “We’ve gotten so PC and we’ve gotten so weirded out. We start labeling. You have to be a black person to write about black people. You have to be a white person… But when you think about the dialects – I love to read. I was an English major and I remember re-reading Wuthering Heights and their broken English dialects, and they are Caucasian people. And Huck Finn is written with a strong dialect from Louisiana – a Southern white boy. I love it – and either you love it or hate it. As a black woman, I grew up in Montgomery, Alabama and I had relatives who were much older in rural Alabama and a few of them had this dialect. A lot of them didn’t. But if she wrote every black character with the same exact voice, then there would be like a cause for concern, but she didn’t do that and I think that gives it authenticity. It made me feel that I was walking in someone else’s shoes… I have a problem with the fact that people are making that an issue. ‘Oh, a white girl,’ and then they read the book and they say, ‘Oh, it’s not Mamie.’ I did it too. I was like, ‘Oh, this is Mamie from Gone with the Wind.“

Still working to get my opportunity, so that I can speak to these actresses, the writer and director myself. But since y’all have been so mean to them about the film, they may not grant me any access now 🙂

I’m kidding… I’m kidding…