This weekend's
The Help
, based on the acclaimed and bestselling novel, is poised to become a genuine summer
sleeper hit. Instead of giant computer generated monstrosities smashing into one another,
the movie carries with it an even tone, with theme of friendship and societal injustice (racist,
sexist, and otherwise). It's stacked with solid performances (from lady actors, no less!),
particularly from Emma Stone and Viola Davis, and the man in charge of wrangling the lasses
is Tate Taylor (no relation) whose own story of involvement with "The Help" is almost as
compelling as the movie itself.
How did you get involved in the project?
Well, my good friend Kathryn Stockett, we have known each other since we were five – grew
up in Jackson, Mississippi. She wrote this novel, wouldn't tell me what it was about when she
was writing it. But I remember 9/11 and we were talking on the phone and we were both so
distraught. And she said, "I'm so homesick, I just wish I could talk to Demetri, I miss her so
much." (Demetri was the African American woman who raised her.) She told me she had
been writing these shorts stories where she and Demetri would just talk. Little did I know
that Demetri became Abilene and five years later she had finished this book, which she still
wouldn't let me read.
We had met in New York and she said, "Man, I just got my 60th rejection letter." So I said,
"Well will you now let me read it?" And she relented. I got on a plane, flying back to LA, and
somewhere over Ohio, I was about 100-pages into it, and my skin felt electric. I couldn't
believe this person, my best friend, had written this. But more importantly, the relationship
between Aibileen and May – I had that same relationship with a woman named Carol Lee,
who is still alive. It made me look at her life and when she went home at night, she had
friends and a sense of humor. I thought, "God I want to tell this story!"
After a month, Kathryn got comfortable with me getting the rights. And I got the rights a
year before it was even in print and in my mind my partner and I were going to raise a couple
million bucks the old school way, and make an independent film. That's how it started. When
the book got into print I had already written an adaptation and was controlling the rights.
If it was going to be independent production how did it change into a big huge movie?
If all of a sudden halfway through your quest to make an indie movie, you have the number
one book, it kind of grows beyond your control. That was our wish, it was the only way we
knew how to do things. But once the book came out it was like, "Wow, what have we got
here?" We started getting calls and we broadened our horizon, realistically. At the same time
people started calling wanting to know who we were and how we had gotten these rights and
we started taking meetings. On paper it of course looked ridiculous – I wouldn't have let me
make this movie! But me and the producers just stuck to it and told people, "I'm going to
direct it." And doors shut. I get it. I completely get it. It's a risky film to begin with in the
culture of filmmaking today but finally DreamWorks brought us in and I sat down with Steven
[Spielberg] and Stacy Snider and I told them my vision and they took a chance and got
behind me, along with Chris Columbus. And we went down to Mississippi and made it.
Did they ever say, "We like your script, but we think Ron Howard should do it?"
Not one time. Steven Spielberg said, "I told Stacy and Stacy agrees – if you were able to
adapt that novel, and we love the script so much, then by all means you should be able to
direct it." And he meant it. He gave me the shot of a lifetime.
Did you feel any pressure that, since the time you had written the screenplay, it had
become everybody's favorite book?
I didn't feel pressure because of how this all came about, before the book was what it was,
and I was adapting the book by myself for free, not knowing if we'd even have the money to
make it as an indie. Because I had to adapt it without any pressures – no notes, no feedback,
no story development committees. I had to look at the material, look at my life, see what it
means to me and then just go do it. And luckily people responded to it. I think if that year of
freedom and oblivion to what was going to happen, I don't know it would have been an
enjoyable writing process or one that was going to stay so true to the novel.
And did you ever call on Kathryn to help you if you ever got stuck?
I never did. She was really kind of cute about it too, because Kathryn loves to write, and she
worked seven years on
The Help. So when she handed it off to me she said, "Tate,
it's yours – I'm ready to go write another book!" We had a relationship of transparency. I told
her, "I'm going to tell you about stuff," but it was always from a place of excitement. I met
her in Central Park and I showed her my outline and I showed her everything I was doing –
the things I was going to keep and the things I was going to change to make it more
cinematic – and she just said, "This all sounds great." I wish I had some stories of contention
but there just aren't any. It's been such a wonderful experience.
What was it like casting the movie?
Well it started with, luckily, avid book readers had read and loved the book. Lucky for me half
the cast had read and loved the book. Octavia had read it, obviously, and Viola, Jessica
Chastain, Bryce Dallas Howard – they loved it! But really it was a combination of that and the
fact that movies aren't made like this – powerful movies about courage, with
multidimensional female characters. So automatically that puts you at the top because it's a
real story with women. So that combined with the love of the book made it really appealing.
And you must have been thrilled that Terry Malick took his sweet ass time with Tree
of Life since now you have another movie star on your hands with Jessica Chastain.
I'll tell you an interesting story about Jessica Chastain – nobody knew who she was. We had
Emma set, we had Viola set, and Bryce – and we were looking for her character. In my mind
it's one of the most difficult to pull off in the movie. I didn't want her to come across as a
bimbo. I was really protective of it. No one knew who she was – she had all of these movies
in the can but nobody had seen them – and she walked in at the end of a long day and she
did her scene. She got up and finished and we were all crying – the casting director, me, the
cameraman. I was like "WHAT JUST HAPPENED?" And that was it.