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Claire Foy has gained international recognition for her powerful portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown, Lisbeth Salander in The Girl in the Spider’s Web and now as Janet Armstrong in First Man.

As part of her acceptance speech for the #SeeHer recognition gong at the Critics' Choice Awards, she delivered a moving statement about the complexities of female roles.

She became the third actor to receive the accolade, which was launched by the Association of National Advertisers in 2016.

She followed in Viola Davis' and Gal Gadot's footsteps, winning the award which aims to increase the number of accurate depictions of women across the media.

Foy made sure to speak about how numerous people refer to her role in the 2018 Neil Armstrong biopic First Man as "just the wife", which she strongly opposes.

“I’ve had the opportunity to play some extraordinary women, for all sorts of reasons, and none more so than Janet Armstrong,” Foy said.

"She lived her life with such bravery and resilience and determination and love," she added.

“I can’t tell you how many times during the making of the movie and in the press tour that people said to me, ‘Well that part is normally the part of just the wife’." 

“And there’s no such thing as ‘just the wife’.” This statement got rapturous applause from the star-studded audience, clearly emphatically agreeing with the British actress.

Foy illustrated that it’s an actor’s responsibility to question who they portray, how they portray them and “how we want people to see themselves on screen” to create change.

Viola Davis presented Foy with the award, and Foy explained how she’d previously watched Davis’ acceptance speech for the 2016 #SeeHer award in preparation for her own.

She was eternally inspired by the outstanding Widows actor’s words that “the greatest privilege in your life is to be who you are.” WE STAN.

The actress concluded by saying she hopes the #SeeHer award will give her “encouragement” to be “brave enough to face and see myself”, and that she hopes it will also help others to do the same.

*Passes the tissues around the office*

im not gonna cry emmy awards GIF by Emmys

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When the 2011 film The Help opened in cinemas, it divided critics. The book of the same name was a bestseller, and its movie adaptation achieved similar success at the box office (it grossed over $200 million), but as many pointed out, it was a film far from perfect. This is largely due to its depiction of the women of colour in the movie and racism in America as a whole. 

The film recounts the story of a young white woman and aspiring journalist Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan, played by Emma Stone and her relationship with two black maids, Aibileen Clark, played by Viola Davis, and Minny Jackson, played by Octavia Spencer, during the Civil Rights Movement in 1963 Jackson, Mississippi.

And despite the fact that Spencer won Best Supporting Actress at the 84th Academy Awards for her role with Davis receiving a nomination, she has told the New York Times that her role in the film is actually one she regrets playing now.

“Have I ever done roles that I’ve regretted?” Davis mused.

“I have – and The Help is on that list.”

She was quick to point out that while the movie had many positives – including the friendship and bonds she formed with its cast and collaborators – she felt that it wasn't truly the maid's voices who were heard in the end.

"[The experience] and the people involved were all great. The friendships that I formed are ones that I’m going to have for the rest of my life. I had a great experience with these other actresses, who are extraordinary human beings. And I could not ask for a better collaborator than Tate Taylor (the director).”

"I just felt that at the end of the day that it wasn’t the voices of the maids that were heard,” she explained.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Black Vibes (@blackvibesdotcom) on

“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.”

This isn't the first time Davis has shared her concerns with the film. Speaking around the time of the film's release, she said much of the same in an interview,  “I love the fact that [Emma Stone’s character] Eugenia said ‘I am going to write a story from the maids’ perspective of what it feels like to work with these white women’. Operative term being THE MAID’S PERSPECTIVE. I don’t feel like it was from our perspective, that’s the problem I had with it. And I had it from the very beginning.”

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It's been seven years since one of our favourite movies was released in cinemas – The Help.

Set in America's deep south at the height of civil rights in 1962, the movie explores the role that the black maids had in bringing up white children and one woman, Skeeter (Emma Stone) who writes a book exposing the injustices in her Mississippi hometown. 

It seems like it was a movie that stayed with a lot of it's stars as many of them took to social media to celebrate the anniversary of the fantastic flick. 

Octavia Spencer, who nabbed an Oscar for her portrayal of hilarious maid Minny Jackson, wrote a lengthy post on instagram, thanking the movie for changing her life.

“What I personally learned from the entire process in preparation for this role was: it doesn't matter if the glass is half empty or half full. What matters is if you own the glass,'' she wrote.

She continued, ''Minny, Aibileen, and all the other maids didn't own the glass. They didn't have the luxury of deciding to be positive (half full) or negative (half empty) as society decided for them. #agencyisTheKey #TheHelp.”

Based on the bestselling novel (if you haven't read it yet, definitely do) by Kathryn Stockett, the movie grossed $216.6 million at the box office and went on to become the first film in almost a decade to top box-office charts for three consecutive weekends and later for 25 days in a row, which was last seen in 1999. 

Pretty impressive, right?

Also dedicating a post to the movie was Viola Davis, who played Minny’s fellow maid Aibileen Clark and was also nominated for the best actress Oscar for her role.

She wrote, “it changed our lives. What an experience. My takeaway? It was the deepest, most intimate, joyful time I spent in the company of women. We are powerful together. The audience received the overflow of the love that we had for each other.”

The fans were out in force, showing their support and commenting, 'easily one of the best films I've ever seen. Full of emotion and a true mirror of society.''

Another said, ''this awesome movie that also changed my life. I don't know how many times I've watched it. I love Minny and Aibileen, they inspired me to be better everyday.''

We know what we're watching tonight with a glass of vino – happy anniversary, The Help!

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In what will probably be one of the best movies this year, Warner Bros and DC Comics have released the second official trailer for Suicide Squad.

The first one debuted at the San Diego Comic Con last July, and now six months later, we get a sneak peak to what the story, and the characters are all about.

Prepare for some bad-ass acting by Will Smith, Margot Robbie and Cara Delevinge, as this is one movie that is not to be missed. 

Sooo… Should we buy are tickets already?

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In case you missed it, Shonda Rhimes has become a pretty big deal in TV land.

Not only is she the emotionally reckless mastermind behind Grey’s Anatomy, she is also responsible for bringing Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder to our screens.

She is also the reason that one our favourite fictional ladies (possibly ever), Meredith Grey was spotted flinging red wine at some of Hollywood’s other leading ladies, including Kerry Washington, Scandal’s star.

Not to worry though, there isn’t another celebrity spat about to wreak havoc on social media. The TV stars were just doing a bit of promotional work.

To be honest, any Scandal fans out there know that Olivia would never be one to waste a good glass of red.

The cast of Shonda’s three series got together for one epic photoshoot. So epic in fact that it led to four different cover shots for Entertainment Weekly.

Sitting down over some wine and cheese with the show’s creator, stars Viola Davis, Ellen Pompeo and Kerry Washington had a frank discussion about Hollywood and McDreamy, of course.

Ellen pointed out that a lot of the reaction to the much loved characters death was something she recognised as quite sexist:

 “All of a sudden, ­Patrick [Dempsey] leaves, and it’s like, Oh my God, ­Meredith’s gonna get killed with Alzheimer’s! The show couldn’t possibly go on ­without the man!

Shonda is famous for keeping her storylines under lock and key and making all of her actors swear to secrecy to avoid spoilers breaking free.

However, there was one nugget of information for any Scandal fans out there as she revealed Cyrus (played by Jeff Perry), will be something of a “monster of the loose” in upcoming episodes.

“He had an arena to play in before, and now the monster is out, and that is a dangerous thing.” 

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There are lots of new releases in Irish cinemas this week for you to check out, including Jennifer Aniston's highly anticipated Cake and The Wedding Ringer starring Kaley Cuoco and Josh Gad – who S! TV were lucky enough to chat to at last week's Irish premiere! 

The Wedding Ringer
Feb 20th
This romantic comedy sees Frozen's Josh Gad looking for a best man before his big day and also stars comedian Kevin Harte and The Big Bang Theory's Kaley Cuoco who we just LOVE! Check out the trailer for more and check out our red carpet chat with The Wedding Ringer stars at last week's Irish premiere

Cake
Feb 20th
There was huge Oscar buzz surrounding this movie for Jennifer Aniston, and she was even nominated for a Golden Globe. Jennifer stars as Claire Bennett, a woman moved by the suicide of a lady named Nina (Anna Kendrick) in her chronic pain support group. Definitely a new character type for Jen and one we can't wait to see her in. 

Blackhat
Feb 20th
An action thriller mystery, Chris Hemsworth (need we say anymore?!) stars as imprisoned hacker, Nick Hathaway. When a group of hackers with sinister motives cause trouble in Chicago, FBI Agent Carol Barrett orders that he be released and help their investigation. 

 

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