The movies Bryce Dallas Howard told people to watch instead of one of her own
Actors are obligated to pretend their latest project is the greatest thing they’ve ever been part of up until the moment the press tour ends, after which they’re free to share their unfiltered opinion. Bryce Dallas Howard waited over a decade to distance herself from a previous film, though, but at least she came armed with recommendations.
Stars disown their movies all the time for a variety of reasons, but it was unusual for a commercially successful, critically acclaimed, and award-winning prestige drama to be turned on so vociferously by several of its key players, which gave The Help a unique position in modern cinema history.
Tate Taylor’s adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s novel earned its $25million budget back at the box office almost ten times over, won Octavia Spencer an Academy Award for ‘Best Supporting Actress’, and earned a further three nominations including one for ‘Best Picture’. And yet, it has a complicated legacy.
Viola Davis – who earned an Oscar nod for her performance – said she felt as though she’d “betrayed myself and my people” by starring in The Help, which she believed was “created in the filter and the cesspool of systemic racism” by minimising Black voices in favour of a predominantly white creative team.
Per People, Howard also confessed that she wouldn’t agree to sign on were it to be offered her way again because “there’s an important stance to take in order to make room for the true authentic storytellers.” Taking things one step further, when The Help ended up exploding in popularity on streaming, the second-generation star offered a list of recommendations that people should watch instead of her own movie.
“I’ve heard that The Help is the most viewed film on Netflix right now,” she wrote on social media. “I’m so grateful for the exquisite friendships that came from that film; our bond is something I treasure deeply and will last a lifetime. This being said, The Help is a fictional story told through the perspective of a white character and was created by predominantly white storytellers. We can all go further.”
Doing the opposite of celebrating its renewed success, Howard urged that “if you are seeking ways to learn about the Civil Rights Movement, lynchings, segregation, Jim Crow, and all the ways in which those have an impact on us today, here are a handful of powerful, essential, masterful films and shows that centre Black lives, stories, creators, and/or performers,” before issuing her picks.
The movies and TV shows Bryce Dallas Howard thinks you should watch instead of The Help:
- 13th (Ava DuVernay, 2016)
- Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement (Various, 1987-1990)
- I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck, 2016)
- Just Mercy (Destin Daniel Cretton, 2019)
- Malcolm X (Spike Lee, 1992)
- Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland (David Heilbroner and Kate Davis, 2018)
- Selma (Ava DuVernay, 2014)
- When They See Us (Ave DuVernay, 2019)
- Watchmen (Damon Lindelof, 2019)
