Ok, so I saw Hidden Figures at an advanced screening and it is the BEST movie I have seen in a while. Not only does it highlight a legendary time in American history, I learned how Black Women played a major role in getting a man into space.
Taraji P Henson talks about playing the role of the African- American mathematician, Katherine Johnson on a recent episode of The Talk. She opens up about how she was “hurt” after reading the Hidden Figures script for the first time.
“I was hurt because growing up as a young girl there was an understanding that math and science were for boys, so I immediately I felt like a dream had been stolen from me,” she said.
“After I got the script, I was like, ‘Wow, that’s horrible.’ Because what if I was allowed to dream to be a rocket scientist. Who knows where my life would be.”
The film, which also stars Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe, tells the untold story of the crucial and integral role that Black female mathematicians played in astronaut John Glenn’s historic orbit in 1962. The actress also said that another reason she took this role was to inspire young girls to become more active in math and science.
“I made it my mission to be a part of this film because I didn’t want another girl to ever believe that her brain cannot understand numbers and rocket science,” she said. “If a boy can do it, you can do it too. A brilliant mind does not have a color or a gender.”
In addition, in a recent interview with W Magazine, Henson admitted that she failed math in college and found humor in playing a mathematician all these years later.
