On February 26, 2012, Octavia Spencer won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her endearing performance as the feisty Minny Jackson in Tate Taylor’s The Help. With her win, Spencer joined an elite group, becoming just the sixth black actress to win an acting Oscar (and only the seventh overall, if you count Irene Cara’s Original Song win for Flashdance, since she also starred in the film). Prior to 2011, Spencer had worked steadily since the mid-90s, gaining a reputation as a warm and generous co-star and a beloved character actress. So her win in February 2012 felt like an authentic opportunity for the academy to recognize an industry favorite.
Spencer was an indomitable force in the 2011 awards season, snatching wins at the Critics Choice, SAG awards, Globe Globes, and BAFTA, and beating out a talented crop of women in sensational breakout performances, including: Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids), Shailene Woodley (The Descendants), and Spencer’s co-star, Jessica Chastain (who had taken both the LA and NY Film Critics awards for her outstanding trio of performances in The Help, Take Shelter, and Tree of Life). Spencer’s Oscar win was a foregone conclusion early in the race. The real competition that was year between Viola Davis and Meryl Streep in Leading Actress. Viola could have made history that night as the second black woman to win in lead, but it wasn’t to be. Instead, Spencer walked away with The Help’s only win that evening. Little did we know then, Octavia’s Oscar story wasn’t over, and she definitely wasn’t done making history...
The Help cast reunited for this year's Oscar luncheon - they're all nominees on Sunday, with two of them expected to win.
When the 2016 Academy Award nominations were announced on January 24, Octavia Spencer received her second Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actress in Hidden Figures, breaking 77-years of history to become the first black woman to receive a nomination after previously winning. When this year’s nominations came out, there were many exciting “firsts," especially relating to artists of color, but Octavia’s accomplishment fell somewhat of the radar. Let's take a deeper look at this history and how Spencer leveraged her win for even greater success.
First, he numbers, just to demonstrate the importance of Spencer’s achievement:
Hattie McDaniel was the first black winner (Gone With the Wind, 1939). She was 44 years old.Since Hattie McDaniel’s nomination and win for Best Supporting Actress in Gone with the Wind in 1939, 28 black women have received a total of 32 acting nominations (including the four performances nominated this year). From that group, 6 women won: 1 in lead, 5 in supporting. Of those winners, only Whoopi Goldberg won on her second nomination, while all others won for their first and only nomination. Spencer is only the third black woman to receive a second nomination, after Goldberg and Viola Davis, and as mentioned, the first to do so after winning. Collectively, their 7 nominations represent 22% of all nominations for black actresses.
Maybe you’re wondering how things stack up on the men’s side…
Denzel won his first Oscar for Glory (1989). He was 35 years oldSidney Poitier was the first black actor to be nominated (The Defiant Ones, 1958) and win (Lilies of the Field, 1963). Since then, 25 black actors have received 39 Oscar nominations, with 7 of these actors winning a total of 8 awards (4 each in lead and supporting). Multiple nominations have come more easily to the men, 6 of whom have earned multiples nods, including Denzel Washington’s 7 and Morgan Freeman’s 5. As far as Spencer’s record achievement, Denzel was the first black actor to do it in 1992, after his win for Glory (1989) and Morgan Freeman also beat her to the punch, netting his first post-win nomination in 2009. Although they reached this mark before Spencer, she is the only black actor to receive a second nomination after winning for her first (the men each won after other nominations).
But what happened after that first win, and how did Octavia get back into the contender’s circle only five years later? Since her first screen credit in 1996 (A Time to Kill), Octavia Spencer has never stopped working and winning an Oscar did nothing to stall her. Before she’d even wrapped her hands around Oscar, her next film, Smashed made waves at that year’s Sundance. Spencer received fine reviews for her supporting role as a recovering alcoholic Jenny, which only added to her momentum that season. That film continued to play at festivals throughout the year, keeping Spencer in the minds of critics and audiences as she settled into post-Oscar life.
You can see a slight decrease in output over the next couple of years, a critical turning point for any Oscar winner. You have to figure out how to leverage your win and new professional esteem to get and choose better, juicier roles and scripts. But some actors, especially actors of color, can struggle with that transition if the roles just aren’t out there. In the intervening years, Spencer seemed to hedge her bets on a finding a few good spotlight roles, balanced with bit parts in bigger budget pictures.
In many ways, 2013 was a turning point for Spencer. A young, untested director decided to send a script to Spencer, with the faintest glimmer of hope that she might be interested in one of the supporting roles. That was Ryan Coogler, who reached out to Octavia to ask if she would be interested in portraying Oscar Grant’s mother in Fruitvale Station. USA Today described Spencer as “The Help” behind Fruitvale Station, revealing the actress was at first hesitant to take a role in a racially charged film. But she came through for Coogler, agreeing to take on the role and insisting he save his limited resources for the film, rather than covering her expenses. When funding for the film fell through, she took charge as an Executive Producer and used her connections to get Coogler the resources he needed to complete the work. This bold approach paid off in dividends.
Fruitvale Station received wide acclaim and Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan were put on the map. Reviews and critics singled out Spencer for her empathetic performance, and the National Board of Review awarded her their Best Supporting Actress prize that fall (one of the few that eluded her during her campaign for The Help). On nomination morning it was a surprise to many when Fruitvale came up empty-handed, but Spencer had positioned herself well to capitalize on the film’s momentum.
After Fruitvale Station Spencer appeared to become more nterested in testing herself with different types of material. She dipped her toe into science fiction waters with Snowpiercer and roles in franchise installments of Percy Jackson and Divergent. She also worked with her idol, Steven Spielberg, who produced her in the short lived TV series The Red Band Society. But most importantly, Fruitvale pushed her past her fear of engaging with racially charged stories, from dramas like Black and White to an uproarious cameo as Harriet Tubman in Drunk History.
This most recent era of her career, her newfound openness to historically and socially complex roles, was perfectly attuned to gradual shifts in the film landscape, where there was a surging demand for more, and more complex, roles and opportunities for actors of color. Hidden Figures, arrived at the right time for Spencer. Since her Oscar win, Octavia found her own rhythm, taking roles that inspired or delighted her, and charting her own path. She wasn’t gunning for a return to the Oscars, she just sought out and made herself available for good work (as any experienced character actor would recommend).
Spencer is an industry veteran and knows a great part when she sees it, so the role of Dorothy Vaughan was a no brainer. She plays Dorothy with a fire that refuses to be doused. She’s smarter than most of the people around her and can see about 10 steps ahead of them to boot. Spencer infuses her performance with a sly and persistent righteousness. Dorothy is ferociously devoted to her family, friends, and colleagues, and Spencer exudes both a warm motherliness and a fierce protectiveness. You find yourself rooting for Katherine, Mary, and Dorothy, equally, but within the film you sense Dorothy is rooting for the others alongside you. Her willingness to fall on her sword, if only to help further the cause for others, is her greatest quality, and the one that most endears her to the audience.
When this year’s Oscar campaigns began in earnest, the Hidden Figures juggernaut was barely on the radar. As the film picked up steam, talk of the trio of outstanding performances at its center lit up the acting races. In a remarkable year for women’s performances, it was unclear who or how many of the cast would squeeze their way into this year’s roster of nominees. Many thought Janelle Monae had the stronger shot, with a buzzier year making her acting debut. But others had their eyes on Spencer, knowing she brought with her the tremendous good will of the industry, the same people that gave her a standing ovation for her last win. When she nabbed Globe and SAG nominations, it seemed she was indeed poised to make history at the Oscars again. And so she did, when her name was called on January 24, she cemented her place in Academy and black history.
What do you think the future holds for Spencer? Which actress do you think is poised to mark this great accomplishment next?