Octavia Spencer - The Shack - Film
Rych McCain International/Nationally Syndicated Entertainment Columnist
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Octavia
Spencer Shines Heavenly
In “The
Shack.”
Before
we get into Octavia Spencer’s role as Papa in the film “The Shack,” we must
clarify some points about William Paul Young, the author of
the book “The Shack” which stayed at #1 for over 70 weeks as a New York
Times best seller. Young is a very unusual man in that he doesn’t view life and
the world like most people because at age one he arrived in Netherlands New
Guines (now West Papua) with his Canadian missionary parents where he grew up.
He says he was six years old before he even knew he was White because of the
different culture and languages to which he became accustom. His views on
spirituality, humanity and other subjects were an extreme opposite from the
norms of someone growing up in Western, Eurocentric culture. As a result, he
had no problem portraying God as a Black Woman and re-arranging other typical
stereotypes of his characters in his book. He took a lot of flak from racist
readers which didn’t faze him at all.
 |
Papa/God (Octavia Spencer) and Mack Phillips (Sam Worthington)
|
Octavia
Spencer plays the role of God who appears in the form of a Black woman
named Papa who comes to the aid of Mack Phillips (Sam Worthington) who has lost
his youngest daughter that was kidnapped and murdered. Papa summons Mack to a
shack in the wilderness where he will find redemption for himself and
forgiveness for the murderer of his daughter.
 |
| Popa comforts Mack through baking |
Upon
opening this interview with Ms. Spencer, I jokingly address her as my Lord and
savior and she laughs saying “Trust me, you don’t want to pray to me. I don’t
fulfill any sort of prayers.” How did this project come together for Spencer?
She explains, “I read the book a few years ago organically, totally independent
of the film and then my agent told me that I will be meeting with Gil Netter.
It was scheduled to be a 30-minute meeting. I met Gil and we hit it off so well
that it turned into a 3-hour odyssey. I think we knew if it was going to
happen, I was probably going to do it.”
 |
Popa & Mack with (L) Jesus (Avraham Aviv Alush) (R) Sumire an Angel (Sarayu)
|
What
were some of the aspects of the script that most appealed to Spencer? She
lights up, “I loved the whole thriller aspect of it because that’s how it came
to me. My friends know that I love thrillers and so I had no idea there was a
faith element at all. But I thought it lended itself so beautifully to the
narrative and what a unique was to explore the frailties of humanity. I loved
the fact that questions were asked of God that every man wanted to ask. I loved
the way the questions were presented and I love the way they were answered.”
©
2017 Rych McCain Media/Syndication TM
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