A week ago, I saw The Help and really loved it. The film was a well-balanced mix of comedy and heart. A lot of this comes from the screenplay adaptation of the book, and a lot comes from the stellar cast.
Unlike most films that get cast in two or three months, The Help took almost a year! The Hollywood Reporter recently contained an article that addressed this fact. You can read it here. For a slideshow featuring blurbs on how each actress or actor was cast, click here.
Some fun facts:
- Octavia Spencer, who plays Minny Jackson in the film, was the first to be cast. In fact, she was inspiration for the book's character. So of course, she was to be cast in the film!
- Although we all know Emma Stone, who plays Skeeter, as a now-famous actress, Stone was actually cast before the success of Easy A. Casting occurred in spring of 2010, but Easy A wasn't released until that year's fall.
- Ahna O' Reilly (playing Elizabeth Leefolt in the movie) auditioned and elicited a 'Thank God, finally, a real Southerner in our film!' from film execs, but in reality she's a California girl! Turns out Spencer trained O' Reilly to speak with a Southern accent just for the audition. Looks like it worked!
