Academy Award winning actress, Octavia Spencer offered a free screening of her most recent film, Hidden Figures, to low income families on Friday. She bought out the 8pm screening of her movie at Baldwin Hills movie theater in Los Angeles for the next day (January 14) and made the public aware of her intention by posting on her Instagram account.
She wrote, “Tomorrow I’ve bought the 8pm showing of #hiddenfigures the rave Baldwin hills. If you know a family in need that would like to see our movie but can’t afford it have them come. It’s first come first served. My mom would not have been able to afford to take me and my siblings. So, I’m honoring her and all single parents this #mlkweekend Pass the word.”
Spencer’s mother Delsenna was a single parent who worked as a maid and other odd jobs to take care of her seven children. “I had a very strong mom who made me and my sisters understand that there were no limitations on our lives except what we placed on ourselves,” she said at The Jess Cagle Interview.
Octavia Spencer lost her mother at the tender age of 18, and her mother never saw her become the successful actress that she is today. Although her mother worried about her, she never did doubt her, and Spencer credits her mother with helping her become a good actress.
“I think she gave me the necessary foundation to be able to do what I do,” she said during the interview. “I think you have to have blind faith in yourself and your ability. You have to not know that there’s a wall there because if you’re constantly looking for barriers, then they will be there.”
It is an inspiring true story, similar to her role in Hidden Figures, which tells the true to life account of three African-American women who worked at NASA and whose mathematical calculations helped the United States advance in the space race.
Hidden Figures is now showing in cinemas all over the world.
Author
