Octavia Spencer

Minny Jackson in The Help (2011) is funny, but Octavia Spencer’s timing stops the humour becoming cosy. She gives the lines their comic force and makes the changes into hurt feel less laboured than the writing might allow. We were moved by Minny because Spencer keeps that hurt present even when she is making us laugh. This is where we rate her most highly. She can make a broadly written supporting character feel worth following when the film has other priorities.

Early casting often confined her to nurses and comic supporting parts, which helps explain why Minny mattered as a breakthrough. More prominent dramatic work followed, including Wanda Johnson in Fruitvale Station (2013) and Dorothy Vaughan in Hidden Figures (2016). The latter gives her firmness something more substantial to express through Vaughan’s quiet leadership. As Zelda Fuller in The Shape of Water (2017), she took that supporting presence into fantasy.

Tate Taylor relies too heavily on the warmth of his actors in The Help. The film is too readily reassured by individual kindness, and Spencer’s warmth cannot make its comforting account of history more searching. Yet she and Viola Davis make it worth an evening, while Jessica Chastain finds private feeling in Celia Foote, another broadly written part. Spencer’s particular contribution is to stop comedy and pain feeling like separate duties. We recommend the performances with considerably fewer reservations than the film.

Her work also includes Mrs. Otterton’s voice in Zootopia (2016), directed by Byron Howard and Rich Moore. We recommend this funny, thoughtful police comedy, with reservations about asking predators and prey to explain human prejudice.

Her recurring assignments as outspoken, resilient or nurturing women make the risk of repetition plain. We would welcome a few more characters who cannot be relied on to do the sensible thing.