It's 95 degrees in New York City today, which makes today kind of perfect to revisit my trip to the set of The Help, which was shooting last August in Greenwood, Mississippi under the sweltering conditions that are typical for the area but no less unbearable. You may have already caught my conversations with stars Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer from the set; today I've got the film's director, Tate Taylor, plus Bryce Dallas Howard, who plays the film's villain Hilly Holbrook.
But in a movie like The Help, the term "villain" is a little tricky-- she's not exactly cut and dry evil like Lord Voldemort or Captain America's Red Skull. Based on Kathryn Stockett's bestselling novel, The Help stars Stone as Skeeter Phelan, a recent Ole Miss graduate returning to her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi in the summer of 1963 and chafing at the strict social structure for women of her class. Hilly Holbrook, Howard's character, has been Skeeter's best friend since childhood, but whereas Skeeter thinks things like the Junior League and bridge games are a little shallow, they are Hilly's entire world. Hilly has also bought wholesale into the deep racism of the period, leading an initiative for white families to build separate, shoddy bathrooms for their African-American "help" to use, and demeaning most of the black women she comes in contact with, which includes maids like Aibileen (Davis) and Minny (Spencer).
Read the Full interview over at cinemablend.com
~Robstenfan
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