Viola Davis, left, and Octavia Spencer in The Help
NOMINEES:
Bérénice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer, The Help
This category isn’t a lock of Mo’Nique proportions — when the standup comic playing the Mother From Hell in Precious had won every award in sight on her way to Oscar Night two years ago — but Spencer is the clear favorite. The other contenders all have potentially disqualifying issues. Chastain: in too many movies released last year (six). Bejo: not the prime reason the Academy loves her much-loved film. McTeer: in one short section of a movie few have seen. McCarthy: poops in sink.
Spencer, even more than Best Actress nominee Viola Davis, is the sure focus of Oscar attention for The Help. She is a longtime friend of the movie’s writer-director, Tate Taylor, who introduced her to his friend, Kathryn Stockett; and Stockett used Spencer’s bountiful physicality as inspiration for Milly in her novel The Help. So in a way she’s playing herself, most becomingly. Investing sweetness and power in a favorite Hollywood stereotype — the serial victim who triumphs over prejudice — Spencer deserves to win, and will.