FILM · 2011 · USA
The Help
- Directed by
- Tate Taylor
- Runtime
- 146 min
- Studio
- 1492 Pictures, Harbinger Pictures
19 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
Aibileen Clark is a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson is an African-American maid who has often offended her employers despite her family's struggles with money and her desperate need for jobs; and Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan is a young white woman who has recently moved back home after graduating college to find out her…
19 Interesting Facts About The Help
Interesting Facts (14)
- #001
Kathryn Stockett's novel, on which the film is based, was rejected 60 times before it was published.
- #002
The film never explains how Eugenia got the nickname "Skeeter." In the book, she says that she was scrawny and long-legged at birth and that her older brother said she looked like a "skeeter" (mosquito).
- #003
The film is set in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1963 — the time and place where civil rights activist Medgar Evers was assassinated. Real-life national news headlines about the assassination are used in the film at around the one-hour-twenty-minute mark.
- #004
Bryce Dallas Howard (Hilly Holbrook) said on her official Facebook page that she hung a photo of Hilly above her own toilet, "where she belongs."
The Help (2011): Hilly HolbrookImage: Wikimedia Commons · Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 3.0 - #005
Skeeter's bookshelf includes "Native Son," Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man," Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" and Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind."
- #006
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the book, Constantine gave Rachel up for adoption because she was very light-skinned.
- #007
Hilly's house is actually a residential property, and the prominent cream-colored sofa was already part of it.
- #008
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the film, Rachel is considerably older than Skeeter. On the door frame of Constantine's house, the growth marks read "Rachel 1944" and "Skeeter 1955."
- #009
In a March 2020 interview with Terry Gross on National Public Radio's "Fresh Air," Octavia Spencer recalled interning on the set of The Long Walk Home (1990) as a high school student in Montgomery, Alabama. Sissy Spacek also appeared in that film, as she does in this one.
The Help (2011): Minny JacksonImage: Wikimedia Commons · Unknown author Unknown author, CC BY-SA 2.5 - #010
The painting above Celia's fireplace was found in a hospital basement. The two chairs in the scene were found in a second-hand store.
- #011
The bookstore in the film, "Avent & Clark Booksellers," is named after Avent Clark, a production assistant on the film in Greenwood, Mississippi.
- #012
Minny Jackson is played by Octavia Spencer. In the novel, Minny's sister is named Octavia.
- #013
In this film, Mary Steenburgen plays an editor who helps a young woman writer publish a novel about life in the South. In Cross Creek (1983), Steenburgen was the writer of such a book set in the South.
- #014
Two actresses have portrayed Gwen Stacy in film. Emma Stone played the character in The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2, while Bryce Dallas Howard played her in Spider-Man 3.
The Help (2011): EugeniaImage: Wikimedia Commons · Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 3.0
Production Story (3)
- #015
Jessica Chastain, a vegan, ate soy ice cream melted in the microwave in order to gain weight for the role of Celia Foote.
- #016
During Leslie Jordan's September 2022 interview with Megan Mullally at the Library of Congress National Book Festival, Jordan recalled what Tate Taylor told him about how to play his character in The Help, Mr. Blackly: "I said to Tate, 'What part am I going to play?' And he said, 'Well, you're going to be the newspaper editor.' And I said, 'Oh, yes, but do you want me to be a little rough? Like the editors in Superman, you know?' He says, 'No.' He says, 'Leslie, every Southern town has one.' I said, 'One what?' He said, 'That married man with five children.' But you know…" I was playing the town's sissy.
- #017
Hilly goes to Skeeter's house while drinking a beer. Mississippi remains the only state that allows adults 21 and over to drink alcohol while driving, as long as their BAC does not exceed 0.08%. Laws against drunk driving were not widespread in the US until the 1980s. So if she had been drunk when she arrived at Skeeter's house, she would not have been breaking the law, because there was no law to break.
Behind the Scenes (1)
- #018
Sissy Spacek nearly turned down the role of Miss Walters because she felt there wasn't enough material to build a fully rounded character, but she changed her mind when director Tate Taylor told her she would be allowed to improvise during filming.
Career & Awards (1)
- #019
Despite her Oscar nomination, Viola Davis expressed regret over her role in the film and apparently agrees with critics of its "white savior" narrative. Davis played Aibileen Clark, one of the Black maids in 1963 Mississippi whose stories are told by a young white woman (Emma Stone) in a book that exposes the everyday racism they faced. In an interview with The New York Times, Davis said The Help was a role she regretted. "I just felt that at the end of the day that it wasn't the voices of the maids that were heard," she said. "I know Aibileen. I know Minny. They're my grandma. They're my mom. And I know that if you do a movie where the whole premise is, 'I want to know what it feels like to work for white people and to bring up children in 1963,' I want to hear how you really feel about it. I never heard that in the course of the movie."
Related pages
- Allison Janney — The Help comes up in the facts on that page
- Reese Witherspoon — The Help comes up in the facts on that page
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- Wikipedia
- IMDb
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