How The Help Was Cast

How ‘The Help’ Was Cast

Emma Stone as Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan
The filmmakers and DreamWorks were so sweet on Stone, now 22, they were willing to overlook the fact that, at 5-foot-6, she wasn’t as tall as the character in the book. She wasn’t well known in spring 2010 when she first came in (Easy A hit theaters that fall), and one unnamed producer admits he was forced to download a pirated copy of Zombieland to get a better sense of Stone’s talent.
Viola Davis as Aibileen Clark
Davis, 46, was about to begin her Broadway play Fences when DreamWorks was casting Help, so it wasn’t clear that she’d be interested. But then the Oscar-nominated actress read the script and met with the filmmakers in New York. Green and Barden knew she was the perfect fit to play Aibileen, a "quiet" role tailor-made for Davis’ expressive talent.
Jessica Chastain as Celia Foote
When the actress arrived to read for the part of the blond bombshell, no one thought the slight redhead was right. Then Chastain, 30, did her scene, and she had the room in tears. All that was needed was a corset and pushup bra.
Sissy Spacek as Missus Walters
"We never thought in our wildest dreams that we’d get Sissy Spacek," says Green. But Spacek, 61, loved the script and joined. Better yet, she actually looks like she could be Howard’s mother.
Octavia Spencer as Minny Jackson
Spencer, 39, was on the project from the beginning and was the reader at nearly every audition for the other parts. She has known Stockett and Taylor for years and went on the book tour with Stockett as well as voicing the audio edition of the best-selling novel.
Allison Janney as Charlotte Phelan
Janney, 51, was the only actress considered for the part and was the first to officially board the project. She has made two other films for Taylor and certainly needed no introduction at DreamWorks after working on American Beauty.
Bryce Dallas Howard as Hilly Holbrook
Most actresses were skittish about playing the mean-hearted racist. But Howard, 30, was ready to shed her good-girl image and went aggressively after the part. "She saw it as a great acting role," says Feldman.
Mary Steenburgen as Elaine Stein
In looks and style, the actress, 58, was the right fit to play a Southern Jewish woman who’d fled home and moved to New York to pursue a career in publishing. In the book, she wasn’t from the South; it was a conceit added for the movie.
Cicely Tyson as Constantine Jefferson
The chance to work with Tyson, 77, was symbolic for Davis, who says her life was changed by Tyson’s 1974 telefilm The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Tyson had no trouble keeping up with the shooting schedule thanks to power naps.
Ahna O’Reilly as Elizabeth Leefolt
Spencer and O’Reilly became friends when both starred in the coming-of-age pic Herpes Boy. Spencer was so keen on getting O’Reilly, 26, a role in Help that she told O’Reilly to fake a Southern accent to impress Taylor.
Aunjanue Ellis
Ellis, 42, was so unhappy with the tape she sent in that she drove more than three hours from McComb, Miss., to Greenwood, Miss., to meet with Taylor and the casting team. She got the job.
Anna Camp as Jolene French
Camp, 28, and the film’s other younger actresses were asked to watch the prize-winning six-hour documentary Eyes on the Prize to understand better the civil rights movement, which happened long before they were born.