You might think that Octavia Spencer, the Oscar-winning co-star of The Help and The Shape of Water, would be trepidatious about starring in a violent, disturbing horror movie like Ma (read my review). But according to filmmaker Tate Taylor, who directed Spencer to her first Oscar nomination – and win – in The Help, she practically leapt at the chance.
In an interview with Bloody-Disgusting, Tate Taylor explained that he knew she had a creepy side, because he was Octavia Spencer’s roommate for seven whole years.
“I wrote The Help while she was in the room next to me,” Taylor explained. “It was just fun. And we’re so close, but you know, you really get to know someone. And I know the real Octavia, and her idea of relaxation is staying in bed all day and watching what she calls ‘Murder TV.’ She loves all the forensic shows, the serial killer biographies, she LOVES it. And she LOVES crazy people.”
“She loves studying them,” Taylor continued, “and she told me a month before I found this project that, ‘I’m so tired being offered the same [role]: Sweet, full of advice, period wigs and dresses.’ So I called her and she’s like ‘Fuck yes, I want to play a crazy person.'”
Octavia Spencer was so invested in the character of “Ma” – a woman who develops an unhealthy and eventually disturbing relationship with teenagers – that the whole character changed.
“I had to adjust it for her,” Taylor said. “There was no backstory when the script came to me. There was no trauma or any of that. It was just a crazy white lady. Which is fine, that’s a genre movie. You don’t need to know much. But I like drama and I need things to be layered. I need to know things.”
“And besides what I did what she was excited about doing was the many looks of Ma. She was really excited that we made her… she’s stuck in the 80s with the mushroom wig – which she calls ‘The Tootie,’ from The Facts of Life – and just very adolescent in her appearance,” Taylor revealed.
Tate Taylor added that if the first film is a success, there could be more horrifying movies about Ma. “We had more fun over drinks coming up with all kinds of possibilities. It would be fun,” he said.
When asked if he’d be back to direct the sequel, Taylor concluded: “Of course! She wouldn’t do it without me. Yeah. We had a lot of fun, man, making this.”
Ma invites you to her very special party, only in theaters, tonight!
