Hot, humid, and sweaty are the appropriate words to describe the set of DreamWorks Pictures’ The Help, the dramatic film set in the South in the 1960s and based on the bestselling novel by Kathryn Stockett. Writer/director Tate Taylor was determined to shoot the movie in Greenwood, Mississippi, and that meant the cast and crew had to put up with temperatures in the 100s while filming was underway in July and August of 2010.
However, a brief walk around the neighborhood where the film was shot made it obvious that Taylor and his team made absolutely the right choice in selecting Greenwood as home for the production. Wandering the neighborhood was like taking a trip back to the ’50s and ’60s, and not much work had to be done to make the main house used for the film look as though it was lifted straight from the pages of Stockett’s popular novel.
Among the cast having to battle the heat was Emma Stone (Zombieland, Easy A) who portrays Skeeter in the film. Skeeter’s a college graduate who discovers shortly after reuniting with her longtime friends that she can no longer sit idly by and not react to their blatant racism. Taking pen to paper, Skeeter and the town’s maids dare to break the law by working together on a groundbreaking tell-all book.
DreamWorks Pictures invited journalists to the set to talk to the cast and filmmakers, and Stone – who was all but melting in an unforgiving brown jacket and matching dress from the ’60s – sat down between takes to discuss her involvement in The Help. Even in the sweltering heat, Stone looked fabulous and, if you’ve read the book, exactly as Skeeter’s described by Stockett.
Emma Stone Interview:
It’s so hot and yet you’re wearing twice as much clothing as everybody else.
Emma Stone: “Thank you. Well, I take the jacket off in the next part of the scene.”
This is Skeeter being more conservatively dressed than everybody else?
Emma Stone: “Yeah, just a little bit. I just came from my job interview at the Jackson Journal, so I think she’s trying to cover up a little bit more. But, you know, Skeeter is a pretty modest girl.”
We heard that you nailed it in your very first reading. What was it that you knew about the character that was so persuasive?
Emma Stone: “I didn’t know that they felt that way, but it’s very nice to hear. Well, Skeeter and I have a lot more in common than I would probably care to admit originally. Of course, I’m not as brave as she is in the endeavors she’s taking on, but I do understand being maybe a little different than your peers in a way. But everyone’s gone through that.
I liked so much about her that she wasn’t a martyr, and the lessons she learns and the way she learns it. I don’t know what it was about me though. I love this girl, so I’m trying to do the best I can to accurately bring her to life.”
Not being a Southerner, what’s it like jumping into this and being surrounded by so many Southerners? What’s the pressure there, and what are some of the more important things you’ve learned?
Emma Stone: “Well we’re lucky enough to be shooting in the South, which is so great, and as far as the accent went we had a really fantastic dialogue coach named Nadia who has just been wonderful. We did a lot of work over Skype before I got here, and once I got here, we did it in person. Being surrounded by Southerners and hearing their stories, and watching things about Civil Rights history, like Eyes on the Prize, or reading books about Jim Crow, that kind of helps me with the backstory in terms of the time period.
As far as being in the South, we’re so lucky that we’re in Mississippi. I never knew what the real feeling of being in the South was like, and the kind of secrecy, and the two sides there are to everybody. We’re in a small town, and everyone’s been so nice and so welcoming, but they also know everything that’s going on. They know if I had someone over to my house last night. It really shows, really informs what we’re talking about in the movie. The secrecy required for something this illegal at the time – I now understand so much more how quickly word travels in a small town in the South. It’s good to know what it’s like.”
How easy is it to get that love-hate relationship between your character and Bryce Dallas Howard’s character?
Emma Stone: “Bryce, I think, has been pretty note-perfect so far. It’s really important to Tate [Taylor, the director] to establish that Hilly and Skeeter were best friends and they really do love each other. And they still really love each other underneath it all, but they haven’t really spent a lot of time together the last four years, and in those four very formative college years, their opinions on things greatly differ, and it becomes more apparent now that Hilly is married and has kids.
It’s easy for me, just because of the way that she’s playing it. It’s been so fantastic. She can switch from [in a thick Southern accent] sweet as pie to just awful in a heartbeat, and she’s figured out the balance really well. It’s kind of my job to react to whatever mood Hilly’s in.”
What’s it like working in a cast that’s mostly female? How does that change the environment and the vibe?
Emma Stone: “I think we’ve been pretty lucky on this one. Everyone is here to make the same movie, and no one’s really come with an ego on them. When that’s the case, and it’s women, it’s actually pretty – I don’t want to sound all girl power here, but it’s been a nice kind of empowering environment to be in. [Laughing] Tate is just keeping a calendar of when who is going through any hormonal times, so he’s aware because he’s surrounded by nine emotional actressy females.”
How have you been handling this weather?
Emma Stone: “I’ve got a wig on so that’s been interesting, just with the netting, and the girdle. It’s hot. But I’m from Arizona, in the desert, which makes you feel like you’re being cooked to death. Here, for me, I feel alive at least. There’s at least moisture, and ‘Oh, I’m a human being, breathing air.’ But the mosquitoes are godawful.”
