1
00:01:23,483 --> 00:01:27,476
I was born 1911, Chickasaw County,
Piedmont Plantation.
2
00:01:29,355 --> 00:01:30,947
[Woman 1] And did you know,
as a girl growing up,
3
00:01:31,091 --> 00:01:32,524
that one day you'd be a maid?
4
00:01:33,359 --> 00:01:34,986
Yes, ma'am, I did.
5
00:01:35,128 --> 00:01:36,652
[Woman 1] And you knew that because...
6
00:01:38,031 --> 00:01:41,330
My mama was a maid.
My grandmama was a house slave.
7
00:01:43,103 --> 00:01:46,504
[Woman 1] House... slave.
8
00:01:48,575 --> 00:01:50,634
Do you ever dream
of being something else?
9
00:01:55,949 --> 00:01:57,814
What does it feel like
to raise a white child
10
00:01:57,951 --> 00:02:00,852
when your own child's at home being
looked after by somebody else?
11
00:02:03,189 --> 00:02:05,123
It feel...
12
00:02:16,402 --> 00:02:19,860
[woman 2]
I done raised 17 kids in my life.
13
00:02:20,006 --> 00:02:23,339
Looking after white babies,
that's what I do.
14
00:02:23,476 --> 00:02:26,445
[Girl] Aibee, Aibee.
15
00:02:26,546 --> 00:02:28,639
- Hi!
- Aibee!
16
00:02:28,781 --> 00:02:32,877
I know how to get them babies to sleep,
stop crying and go in the toilet bowl
17
00:02:33,019 --> 00:02:35,044
before their mamas even
get out of bed in the morning.
18
00:02:35,188 --> 00:02:36,985
[Girl giggling]
19
00:02:37,123 --> 00:02:38,681
Babies like fat.
20
00:02:38,825 --> 00:02:41,817
They like big fat legs, too.
That I know.
21
00:02:41,961 --> 00:02:46,330
You is kind, you is smart...
22
00:02:46,466 --> 00:02:48,730
...you is important.
23
00:02:48,868 --> 00:02:51,359
- You is smart...
- Smart...
24
00:02:51,504 --> 00:02:54,064
...you is kind...
...you is kind...
25
00:02:54,207 --> 00:02:57,074
...you is important.
...you is important.
26
00:02:57,677 --> 00:02:59,668
That's so good.
27
00:03:00,213 --> 00:03:01,874
[Laughing]
28
00:03:02,015 --> 00:03:03,482
That's so good.
29
00:03:06,052 --> 00:03:09,385
I work for the Leefolts
from eight to four, six days a week.
30
00:03:09,522 --> 00:03:15,256
I make 95 cent an hour.
That comes to $ 182 every month.
31
00:03:16,496 --> 00:03:21,866
I do all the cooking, cleaning, washing,
ironing and grocery shopping.
32
00:03:25,038 --> 00:03:28,633
But mostly, I take care of Baby Girl.
33
00:03:29,943 --> 00:03:32,104
And, Lord, I worry she gonna be fat.
34
00:03:32,879 --> 00:03:34,779
Mae Mobley.
35
00:03:34,914 --> 00:03:37,075
Ain't going to be
no beauty queen either.
36
00:03:37,217 --> 00:03:40,880
Aibileen, bridge club is in an hour.
Did you finish the chicken salad?
37
00:03:41,020 --> 00:03:43,045
- Yes.
- Oh, and Hilly's devilled eggs.
38
00:03:43,189 --> 00:03:44,884
- No paprika.
- Mm-hm.
39
00:03:46,726 --> 00:03:48,853
Does this dress look homemade?
40
00:03:51,164 --> 00:03:53,189
I reckon when you finish it won't.
41
00:03:53,833 --> 00:03:55,767
Well, thank you.
42
00:03:55,902 --> 00:03:59,929
Miss Leefolt still don't
pick Baby Girl up but once a day.
43
00:04:00,139 --> 00:04:03,472
The birthing blues got hold
of Miss Leefolt pretty hard.
44
00:04:03,610 --> 00:04:05,942
I done seen it happen plenty of times,
45
00:04:06,079 --> 00:04:08,343
once babies start having
their own babies.
46
00:04:08,514 --> 00:04:11,779
[Western music]
47
00:04:18,925 --> 00:04:21,325
[Aibileen] And the young
white ladies of Jackson...
48
00:04:21,461 --> 00:04:24,123
...oh Lord, was they having babies.
49
00:04:24,264 --> 00:04:26,095
But not Miss Skeeter.
50
00:04:27,066 --> 00:04:29,091
No man and no babies.
51
00:05:01,968 --> 00:05:04,129
- Morning.
- Hi.
52
00:05:04,270 --> 00:05:06,363
- My name is Eugenia Phelan, and...
- Come on.
53
00:05:07,507 --> 00:05:09,634
[Indistinct chatter]
54
00:05:12,011 --> 00:05:13,740
[Phone ringing]
55
00:05:13,913 --> 00:05:16,313
[Typewriter clacking]
56
00:05:16,449 --> 00:05:18,076
Eugenia Phelan, Mr Blackly.
57
00:05:19,952 --> 00:05:22,147
Shut the damn door.
58
00:05:22,288 --> 00:05:25,746
I guarantee you, one day they're going
to figure out cigarettes will kill you.
59
00:05:25,925 --> 00:05:28,325
OK, Miss Phelan,
let's see what you got.
60
00:05:32,298 --> 00:05:34,562
Murrah High: Editor.
61
00:05:35,201 --> 00:05:37,635
Ole Miss Rebel Rouser: Editor.
62
00:05:37,737 --> 00:05:38,897
Double major.
63
00:05:39,706 --> 00:05:41,071
Junior League: Editor.
64
00:05:41,741 --> 00:05:45,074
- Damn, girl, don't you have fun?
- Is that important?
65
00:05:45,545 --> 00:05:47,536
- Do you have any references?
- Yes.
66
00:05:49,482 --> 00:05:51,211
Right here.
67
00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:56,188
[Exclaims] This...
68
00:05:56,322 --> 00:05:58,051
This is a rejection letter.
69
00:05:58,191 --> 00:06:00,819
Not exactly. See, Miss Stein thought...
70
00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:02,587
Stein?
71
00:06:02,729 --> 00:06:05,197
Elaine Stein, from Harper and Row
Publishing in New York.
72
00:06:05,331 --> 00:06:06,559
Oh, Lord.
73
00:06:06,699 --> 00:06:08,428
I'm gonna be a serious writer,
Mr Blackly.
74
00:06:09,702 --> 00:06:12,136
I applied for a job,
but Mrs Stein thought...
75
00:06:12,305 --> 00:06:13,863
She said no. [chuckling]
76
00:06:14,006 --> 00:06:15,940
Well, until I gain some experience.
77
00:06:16,075 --> 00:06:17,440
See? Says right there.
78
00:06:17,577 --> 00:06:21,138
"Great potential. Gain some experience
and please apply again."
79
00:06:23,316 --> 00:06:26,444
Oh, Christ. I guess you'll do.
Do you clean?
80
00:06:26,986 --> 00:06:29,011
- I'm sorry. Clean?
- Clean.
81
00:06:29,122 --> 00:06:30,555
Grab that basket.
82
00:06:31,991 --> 00:06:35,483
Miss Myrna has gone
shit-house crazy on us.
83
00:06:35,661 --> 00:06:38,129
She drunk hairspray or something.
84
00:06:38,264 --> 00:06:40,562
I want you to read her past columns.
85
00:06:40,700 --> 00:06:43,396
Then read these letters and you
answer them just like she would.
86
00:06:43,536 --> 00:06:45,970
Nobody is gonna know
the damn difference.
87
00:06:46,105 --> 00:06:48,130
You know who Miss Myrna is?
88
00:06:48,875 --> 00:06:50,570
I read her articles all the time.
89
00:06:50,710 --> 00:06:54,043
Articles? Miss Phelan,
it's a cleaning advice column.
90
00:06:54,147 --> 00:06:56,980
Eight bucks a week.
Copy is due on Thursday.
91
00:06:57,116 --> 00:06:59,812
- [Phone buzzing]
- Hello?
92
00:07:01,120 --> 00:07:04,817
Lou Ann, honey, I can't talk right now.
I'm at work.
93
00:07:04,957 --> 00:07:08,393
What? Shut that goddamn door.
94
00:07:23,910 --> 00:07:26,071
Mama, we're late for bridge!
95
00:07:26,179 --> 00:07:28,773
[Aibileen] Miss Hilly was the first
of the babies to have a baby.
96
00:07:28,915 --> 00:07:30,473
...three...
97
00:07:30,616 --> 00:07:33,346
And it must have come out of her like
the 11 th Commandment,
98
00:07:33,486 --> 00:07:35,784
'cause once Miss Hilly had a baby,
99
00:07:35,922 --> 00:07:38,823
every girl at the bridge table
had to have one, too.
100
00:07:39,525 --> 00:07:41,425
Minny, go get Mama!
101
00:07:47,433 --> 00:07:49,458
Missus Walters,
you need help coming down?
102
00:07:49,602 --> 00:07:51,092
- I'm down.
- Ooh.
103
00:07:51,204 --> 00:07:53,638
- I been down.
- Give me a heart attack.
104
00:07:53,773 --> 00:07:56,901
Whoa, whoa, whoa, Missus Walters.
Here, let me help you.
105
00:07:57,076 --> 00:08:00,102
Take that off.
It's 98 degrees out there.
106
00:08:00,246 --> 00:08:01,679
- Is it?
- Yes, ma'am.
107
00:08:01,814 --> 00:08:03,509
Well, let's put my coat on then.
108
00:08:03,649 --> 00:08:05,708
- Come on, Minny.
- All right.
109
00:08:05,852 --> 00:08:07,342
- Here's your pocketbook.
- Thank you.
110
00:08:07,487 --> 00:08:09,148
OK, let me get the pie.
111
00:08:09,288 --> 00:08:11,779
Hold on, Missus Walters. Hold on.
112
00:08:13,793 --> 00:08:18,025
Once Missus Walters' arteries went hard,
Miss Hilly moved her into her house
113
00:08:18,164 --> 00:08:20,826
and fired the maid she had
to make room for Minny, too.
114
00:08:21,968 --> 00:08:24,937
See, Minny about the best cook
in Mississippi,
115
00:08:25,104 --> 00:08:26,696
and Miss Hilly wanted her.
116
00:08:29,308 --> 00:08:32,402
I lost my own boy, Treelore,
four years ago.
117
00:08:33,679 --> 00:08:36,045
After that, I just didn't want
to live no more.
118
00:08:37,450 --> 00:08:39,941
It took God and Minny
to get me through it.
119
00:08:40,920 --> 00:08:45,482
Minny my best friend.
Old lady like me lucky to have her.
120
00:08:49,529 --> 00:08:54,592
After my boy died, a bitter seed
was planted inside of me.
121
00:08:55,668 --> 00:08:58,569
And I just didn't feel
so accepting anymore.
122
00:09:12,151 --> 00:09:13,243
No.
123
00:09:13,386 --> 00:09:16,753
You drunk up two glasses of grape juice.
I know you got to tee-tee.
124
00:09:16,889 --> 00:09:17,856
No.
125
00:09:17,957 --> 00:09:20,289
I'll give you two cookies if you go.
126
00:09:22,728 --> 00:09:24,195
[Splashing]
127
00:09:24,297 --> 00:09:26,891
Mae Mobley, you're going!
128
00:09:27,400 --> 00:09:30,267
[Miss Leefolt] Aibileen, the girls are
pulling up, and the table isn't set.
129
00:09:30,403 --> 00:09:32,928
Mae Mobley go, Mama.
130
00:09:33,072 --> 00:09:35,267
Get in your room right now.
131
00:09:36,976 --> 00:09:39,001
Set out the dessert forks. Please.
132
00:09:39,879 --> 00:09:39,946
[Music on radio]
133
00:09:39,946 --> 00:09:42,562
[Music on radio]
134
00:09:42,715 --> 00:09:45,309
Put Mama in a chair
before she breaks a hip.
135
00:09:45,451 --> 00:09:47,578
[Scoffs] I'm not deaf yet, Hilly.
136
00:09:47,720 --> 00:09:50,018
- Hey, girls.
- [All greeting]
137
00:09:50,189 --> 00:09:55,684
Oh. Minny. Will you see if Aibileen
has some of that ambrosia?
138
00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:02,797
Hold on. Those are Miss Hilly's.
139
00:10:02,935 --> 00:10:06,098
[Groaning] She looks like the winning
horse at the Kentucky Derby.
140
00:10:06,238 --> 00:10:08,263
- [Chuckling]
- All flowers and bows.
141
00:10:08,407 --> 00:10:09,931
Got to have paprika on them.
142
00:10:10,076 --> 00:10:11,634
Ooh.
143
00:10:11,777 --> 00:10:15,178
Forgive me, Lord, but I'm gonna have
to kill that woman, Aibileen.
144
00:10:15,314 --> 00:10:18,249
Now she gone to putting pencil marks
on my toilet paper.
145
00:10:18,351 --> 00:10:19,443
[Laughing]
146
00:10:19,585 --> 00:10:21,109
- Did she?
- Mm-hm.
147
00:10:21,253 --> 00:10:24,950
But I carry paper in from my own
damn house. That fool don't know.
148
00:10:27,827 --> 00:10:29,954
Miss Leefolt got so much hairspray
on her head
149
00:10:30,096 --> 00:10:32,326
she gonna blow us all up
if she light a cigarette.
150
00:10:33,232 --> 00:10:35,325
And you know she will!
151
00:10:42,308 --> 00:10:44,173
- You got some ambrosia?
- You know I do.
152
00:10:44,310 --> 00:10:45,868
All right, I'll be back.
153
00:10:46,012 --> 00:10:48,003
Minny, cord, girl.
154
00:10:48,681 --> 00:10:49,739
Shut up.
155
00:10:49,915 --> 00:10:50,939
[Organ music on TV]
156
00:10:51,050 --> 00:10:53,416
[Male announcer] The Guiding Light.
157
00:10:56,589 --> 00:10:58,352
Hi, Missus Walters.
158
00:10:58,924 --> 00:11:00,915
I'm watching my story.
159
00:11:01,694 --> 00:11:02,752
OK.
160
00:11:02,928 --> 00:11:04,691
Isn't it gorgeous?
161
00:11:04,830 --> 00:11:05,854
Sorry I'm late.
162
00:11:05,998 --> 00:11:08,159
[All gasping, shrieking]
163
00:11:08,968 --> 00:11:10,162
You're home!
164
00:11:10,803 --> 00:11:12,395
I missed you all, too.
165
00:11:14,707 --> 00:11:18,040
Well, if it isn't "Long Haul" Skeeter.
166
00:11:18,177 --> 00:11:20,407
We didn't ever think
you'd leave Ole Miss.
167
00:11:20,546 --> 00:11:22,912
Well, it does take four years, Jolene.
168
00:11:24,183 --> 00:11:27,846
I've got a great summer planned for you.
169
00:11:27,987 --> 00:11:29,215
Great.
170
00:11:29,355 --> 00:11:32,518
I went ahead and I picked up my black
dress from the cleaners this morning.
171
00:11:35,394 --> 00:11:36,418
What?
172
00:11:37,396 --> 00:11:39,864
- About supper club tonight.
- What?
173
00:11:40,433 --> 00:11:41,457
[Groaning]
174
00:11:41,634 --> 00:11:43,795
Honey, Stuart had to cancel.
175
00:11:43,969 --> 00:11:45,368
- Again?
- [Missus Walters cackling]
176
00:11:45,504 --> 00:11:48,234
He got held up on the oil rig, Skeeter.
177
00:11:48,374 --> 00:11:50,706
It's... It's offshore.
178
00:11:50,843 --> 00:11:54,677
I'm starting to think this Stuart
is a figment of your imagination,
179
00:11:54,780 --> 00:11:56,077
so just forget it.
180
00:11:56,749 --> 00:11:58,114
I'm just gonna go get a plate.
181
00:11:58,250 --> 00:12:00,548
- Shh!
- Sorry!
182
00:12:02,521 --> 00:12:04,785
[Music on radio]
183
00:12:07,426 --> 00:12:08,791
I got a job today.
184
00:12:10,896 --> 00:12:12,488
At The Jackson Journal.
185
00:12:14,867 --> 00:12:16,960
They'd be a fool not to hire you.
186
00:12:17,103 --> 00:12:20,402
- [All giggling]
- To Skeeter and her job.
187
00:12:20,539 --> 00:12:22,302
Last stop till marriage.
188
00:12:22,875 --> 00:12:23,705
Oh!
189
00:12:27,780 --> 00:12:29,941
- It's for the Miss Myrna column.
- Hmm.
190
00:12:30,082 --> 00:12:32,175
Elizabeth, can I talk to Aibileen?
191
00:12:32,918 --> 00:12:36,115
Just to help me with some of the letters
till I get a knack for it.
192
00:12:37,690 --> 00:12:39,055
My Aibileen?
193
00:12:39,925 --> 00:12:42,393
Why can't you just
get Constantine to help?
194
00:12:47,566 --> 00:12:50,057
- Constantine quit us.
- [All gasping]
195
00:12:50,169 --> 00:12:52,729
Oh, my gosh. Skeeter, I'm so sorry.
196
00:12:52,838 --> 00:12:57,138
Anyway, I just, um... I don't really
know how to answer these letters.
197
00:12:57,777 --> 00:13:01,611
Well, I mean, as long as it doesn't
interfere with her work.
198
00:13:01,747 --> 00:13:03,612
I don't see why not.
199
00:13:06,452 --> 00:13:08,215
[Phone ringing]
200
00:13:11,657 --> 00:13:12,817
Leefolt residence.
201
00:13:12,958 --> 00:13:14,949
Hello. Is Elizabeth in?
202
00:13:15,094 --> 00:13:17,562
She having bridge club right now.
May I take a message?
203
00:13:17,730 --> 00:13:21,632
Yes, please tell her Celia Foote
called again.
204
00:13:22,768 --> 00:13:24,497
I'll call back tomorrow.
205
00:13:24,637 --> 00:13:26,696
- Yes, ma'am.
- Uh...
206
00:13:26,839 --> 00:13:28,807
Miss?
207
00:13:28,941 --> 00:13:33,310
I'm looking for some help at my house.
Do you know any maids looking?
208
00:13:33,445 --> 00:13:34,639
No, ma'am.
209
00:13:34,780 --> 00:13:37,305
OK. It's Celia Foote.
210
00:13:37,449 --> 00:13:41,146
Emerson-684. [giggling]
Bye now.
211
00:13:44,890 --> 00:13:46,915
[Gasping, giggling]
212
00:13:47,092 --> 00:13:49,720
You scared the daylights out of me!
213
00:13:50,529 --> 00:13:54,056
It is lunchtime,
and I am suddenly hungry.
214
00:13:54,633 --> 00:13:57,466
[Celia giggling, indistinct chatter]
215
00:13:57,570 --> 00:13:59,504
Honestly!
216
00:13:59,638 --> 00:14:01,833
[Snoring]
217
00:14:04,810 --> 00:14:06,175
[Gasping] Oh.
218
00:14:06,312 --> 00:14:08,075
I'm still working on it, Aibileen.
219
00:14:11,650 --> 00:14:13,015
Who was that on the phone?
220
00:14:13,152 --> 00:14:15,245
Miss Celia Foote called again.
221
00:14:16,555 --> 00:14:18,489
I've never called her back, Hilly.
222
00:14:20,059 --> 00:14:22,254
She can't take a hint, can she?
223
00:14:22,394 --> 00:14:24,021
Who's Celia Foote?
224
00:14:24,163 --> 00:14:26,188
That tacky girl Johnny married.
225
00:14:26,332 --> 00:14:28,197
From Sugar Ditch.
226
00:14:28,334 --> 00:14:29,892
It could have been you, Hilly.
227
00:14:30,035 --> 00:14:35,405
And live 30 minutes outside of town?
No, thank you. [chuckling]
228
00:14:35,541 --> 00:14:40,501
Anyway, I ran into her at the beauty
parlour, and she had the nerve to ask
229
00:14:40,613 --> 00:14:42,706
if she could help with
the Children's Benefit Ball.
230
00:14:42,848 --> 00:14:46,045
Aren't we taking non-members?
The benefit has gotten so big.
231
00:14:46,185 --> 00:14:49,279
Yes, but we're not telling her.
232
00:14:49,421 --> 00:14:51,514
[All giggling]
233
00:14:51,957 --> 00:14:53,584
Thank you, Aibileen.
234
00:14:53,726 --> 00:14:55,921
[Groaning]
235
00:14:59,031 --> 00:15:00,965
Hilly, I wish you'd just
go use the bathroom.
236
00:15:01,033 --> 00:15:02,557
I'm fine.
237
00:15:02,701 --> 00:15:04,464
[Missus Walters]
Oh, she's just upset
238
00:15:04,603 --> 00:15:07,401
because the nigra uses the guest bath
and so do we.
239
00:15:10,876 --> 00:15:13,003
Aibileen, go check on Mae Mobley.
240
00:15:13,178 --> 00:15:14,270
Yes, ma'am.
241
00:15:15,447 --> 00:15:17,142
Just go use mine and Raleigh's.
242
00:15:17,283 --> 00:15:20,980
If Aibileen uses the guest bath,
I'm sure she uses yours, too.
243
00:15:21,120 --> 00:15:22,485
She does not.
244
00:15:23,389 --> 00:15:26,620
Wouldn't you rather them
take their business outside?
245
00:15:28,327 --> 00:15:30,887
Have you all seen the cover
of Life this week?
246
00:15:30,996 --> 00:15:32,429
Jackie's never looked more regal.
247
00:15:32,564 --> 00:15:35,362
Tell Raleigh every penny he spends
on a coloured's bathroom
248
00:15:35,534 --> 00:15:38,367
he'll get back in spades
when y'all sell.
249
00:15:38,537 --> 00:15:39,663
[Makes disgusted noise]
250
00:15:39,805 --> 00:15:43,935
It's just plain dangerous. They carry
different diseases than we do.
251
00:15:44,877 --> 00:15:45,901
Pass.
252
00:15:46,011 --> 00:15:49,174
That's why I've drafted
the Home Health Sanitation Initiative.
253
00:15:49,315 --> 00:15:50,646
The what?
254
00:15:50,783 --> 00:15:52,717
[Hilly] A disease-preventative bill
255
00:15:52,885 --> 00:15:57,322
that requires every white home to have a
separate bathroom for the coloured help.
256
00:15:58,157 --> 00:16:00,591
It's been endorsed
by the White Citizens' Council.
257
00:16:04,430 --> 00:16:07,524
Maybe we should just build you
a bathroom outside, Hilly.
258
00:16:07,666 --> 00:16:11,193
You ought not to joke
about the coloured situation.
259
00:16:12,504 --> 00:16:15,200
I'll do whatever it takes
to protect our children.
260
00:16:17,042 --> 00:16:18,976
Your lead, Elizabeth.
261
00:16:20,012 --> 00:16:22,640
[Sermon on radio]
262
00:16:24,049 --> 00:16:26,040
[Plates clinking]
263
00:16:30,689 --> 00:16:32,213
- Aibileen?
- Yes, ma'am.
264
00:16:34,360 --> 00:16:37,329
Do you think you'd be willing to help me
with those Miss Myrna letters?
265
00:16:39,264 --> 00:16:41,892
Miss Myrna get it wrong a lot of times.
Be good to get it right.
266
00:16:42,034 --> 00:16:44,559
[Both chuckling]
267
00:16:44,703 --> 00:16:46,170
Thank you, Aibileen.
268
00:16:48,540 --> 00:16:50,167
All that talk in there today...
269
00:16:51,543 --> 00:16:52,840
Hilly's talk?
270
00:16:53,512 --> 00:16:55,446
I'm sorry you had to hear that.
271
00:16:55,614 --> 00:16:58,105
[Sermon continues]
272
00:17:04,656 --> 00:17:06,749
Is that Preacher Green's sermon?
273
00:17:06,892 --> 00:17:09,019
Yes, ma'am, it is.
274
00:17:09,161 --> 00:17:12,096
That reminds me so much of my maid,
Constantine.
275
00:17:13,365 --> 00:17:16,766
I know Constantine.
We're in church circle together.
276
00:17:17,436 --> 00:17:18,733
Have you seen her lately?
277
00:17:20,005 --> 00:17:21,336
No, ma'am.
278
00:17:21,440 --> 00:17:23,032
Did you know that she had quit us?
279
00:17:23,175 --> 00:17:24,199
Quit?
280
00:17:24,343 --> 00:17:27,676
I got home from school a week ago,
and my mama told me she had quit.
281
00:17:27,780 --> 00:17:31,614
Back in March, she went to live with
her daughter, Rachel. In Chicago.
282
00:17:32,718 --> 00:17:34,777
Did you hear that?
Do you have her phone number?
283
00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:37,047
There you are, Skeeter.
284
00:17:39,124 --> 00:17:41,558
Hilly wants you to put her initiative
in the League newsletter.
285
00:17:41,693 --> 00:17:42,717
OK.
286
00:17:44,263 --> 00:17:45,890
I'll be back tomorrow, Aibileen,
287
00:17:46,031 --> 00:17:48,625
to get started on those
Miss Myrna letters.
288
00:17:48,767 --> 00:17:49,961
Y'all make it quick.
289
00:17:50,102 --> 00:17:52,468
Tomorrow is silver-polishing day. OK?
290
00:18:11,490 --> 00:18:12,923
Hi, Jameso.
291
00:18:13,058 --> 00:18:14,320
How you, Miss Eugenia?
292
00:18:16,395 --> 00:18:17,419
Mama?
293
00:18:21,400 --> 00:18:22,833
Mama.
294
00:18:23,435 --> 00:18:25,335
[Woman] Yoo-hoo.
295
00:18:35,948 --> 00:18:37,176
Mama?
296
00:18:37,316 --> 00:18:38,544
[Woman] Back here, honey!
297
00:18:40,619 --> 00:18:43,611
[Music on radio]
298
00:18:43,755 --> 00:18:45,484
Is this a little too young?
299
00:18:46,258 --> 00:18:48,158
That's a little too everything.
300
00:18:49,528 --> 00:18:51,223
Oh, hell. You're right.
301
00:19:06,945 --> 00:19:08,003
OK.
302
00:19:10,749 --> 00:19:12,114
Much better.
303
00:19:13,085 --> 00:19:15,485
Your daddy bought me this dress in '58.
304
00:19:16,188 --> 00:19:18,053
Mama, I want to ask you
about Constantine.
305
00:19:18,190 --> 00:19:20,920
Right after Ole Miss won the Sugar Bowl.
Come on. You try it on.
306
00:19:21,093 --> 00:19:22,219
What really happened?
307
00:19:22,361 --> 00:19:25,330
Skeeter, your mother is sick.
She wants to see you in this dress.
308
00:19:25,464 --> 00:19:26,488
Unzip me.
309
00:19:28,133 --> 00:19:29,191
Come on.
310
00:19:31,537 --> 00:19:34,062
Did I tell you Fanny Peatrow
got engaged?
311
00:19:35,140 --> 00:19:36,937
After she got that teller job,
312
00:19:37,109 --> 00:19:39,168
her mother said she was swimming
in proposals.
313
00:19:39,311 --> 00:19:41,211
Good for fair Fanny Peatrow.
314
00:19:41,346 --> 00:19:44,611
Eugenia, your eggs are dying.
Would it kill you to go on a date?
315
00:19:45,350 --> 00:19:49,480
Just show a little gumption.
Careful now, careful.
316
00:19:49,588 --> 00:19:51,920
Oh, now look at this.
317
00:19:52,558 --> 00:19:55,857
This dress is just precious on you.
318
00:19:55,994 --> 00:20:00,021
Just take it in a little here.
Little there.
319
00:20:02,367 --> 00:20:05,165
- Get your hair fixed.
- I got a job today.
320
00:20:05,270 --> 00:20:06,294
Where?
321
00:20:06,939 --> 00:20:09,066
Writing for The Jackson Journal.
322
00:20:10,375 --> 00:20:12,707
- [Pulling up zipper]
- Great.
323
00:20:13,412 --> 00:20:15,607
You can write my obituary!
324
00:20:15,747 --> 00:20:19,911
"Charlotte Phelan, dead!
Her daughter, still single."
325
00:20:20,052 --> 00:20:22,577
Mother, would it really be so bad
if I never met a husband?
326
00:20:22,721 --> 00:20:25,519
Skeeter! Skeeter!
327
00:20:26,525 --> 00:20:27,958
[Shouting] Skeeter!
328
00:20:32,631 --> 00:20:34,064
I need to ask you something.
329
00:20:38,870 --> 00:20:42,806
I read the other day about how
some girls get unbalanced.
330
00:20:43,442 --> 00:20:44,807
They start thinking these...
331
00:20:46,511 --> 00:20:48,479
...unnatural thoughts.
332
00:20:48,614 --> 00:20:49,979
Are you...
333
00:20:51,750 --> 00:20:56,585
Do you, uh... find men attractive?
334
00:20:57,122 --> 00:21:01,957
Are you having unnatural thoughts
about girls or women?
335
00:21:03,662 --> 00:21:04,788
Oh, my God.
336
00:21:04,930 --> 00:21:09,629
Because this article says there's
a cure. A special root tea!
337
00:21:09,768 --> 00:21:15,172
Mother, I want to be with girls as much
as you want to be with Jameso.
338
00:21:15,307 --> 00:21:17,502
- Eugenia!
- Unless, of course, you do!
339
00:21:17,643 --> 00:21:19,042
Oh!
340
00:21:19,544 --> 00:21:21,011
[Exclaiming]
341
00:21:21,146 --> 00:21:24,638
Carlton's bringing Rebecca to dinner.
Try to look presentable!
342
00:21:26,084 --> 00:21:28,814
[Laughing]
343
00:21:28,954 --> 00:21:31,115
What the hell you know
about cleaning a house, Skeeter?
344
00:21:31,256 --> 00:21:33,986
It's a start, Carlton.
345
00:21:34,126 --> 00:21:37,618
If you say so.
I thought you wanted to write books.
346
00:21:37,763 --> 00:21:40,857
Now, y'all leave Sister alone.
347
00:21:40,999 --> 00:21:43,934
- I'm proud of you, sweetheart.
- The irony of it all.
348
00:21:44,036 --> 00:21:46,368
Giving advice on how to keep up a home
when she doesn't even...
349
00:21:46,505 --> 00:21:49,963
Oh, no, Pascagoula. You couldn't have
known this, but I'm allergic to almonds.
350
00:21:50,108 --> 00:21:52,838
Sorry, Miss Eugenia,
I'll get you another one.
351
00:21:52,978 --> 00:21:55,538
You know, last time I had an almond,
I stopped liking men.
352
00:21:55,681 --> 00:21:57,273
Oh, my Lord.
353
00:21:57,382 --> 00:22:01,182
Oh, no, Rebecca, it's fine. There's
a special root tea for that now.
354
00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:02,685
You have pushed it, young lady.
355
00:22:03,355 --> 00:22:06,518
Daddy. What happened to Constantine?
356
00:22:06,658 --> 00:22:08,990
Uh, well...
357
00:22:09,695 --> 00:22:13,062
Constantine went to live in Chicago
with her family.
358
00:22:13,198 --> 00:22:15,723
People move on, Skeeter.
359
00:22:15,867 --> 00:22:18,301
But I do wish that she'd
stayed down here with us.
360
00:22:23,275 --> 00:22:25,004
I don't believe you.
361
00:22:25,610 --> 00:22:26,634
[Sighing]
362
00:22:26,745 --> 00:22:29,213
She would've written and told me.
363
00:22:38,523 --> 00:22:40,184
Did you fire her?
364
00:22:40,826 --> 00:22:44,990
We were just a job to her, honey.
With them, it's all about money.
365
00:22:45,097 --> 00:22:48,658
You'll understand that once you've
hired help of your own.
366
00:22:49,401 --> 00:22:52,268
- She raised me.
- She did not!
367
00:22:52,404 --> 00:22:55,032
She worked here for 29 years!
368
00:22:55,173 --> 00:22:57,403
It was a coloured thing
and I put it behind me!
369
00:22:58,110 --> 00:23:01,944
Excuse me a moment, Rebecca. My daughter
has upset my cancerous ulcers.
370
00:23:06,852 --> 00:23:08,877
[Door slamming]
371
00:23:09,020 --> 00:23:11,250
[Birds calling]
372
00:23:48,693 --> 00:23:51,127
What you doing hiding out here, girl?
373
00:23:52,764 --> 00:23:56,165
I couldn't tell Mama I didn't
get asked to the dance.
374
00:23:56,301 --> 00:23:57,461
It's all right.
375
00:23:58,637 --> 00:24:02,164
Some things we just got to
keep to ourselves, right?
376
00:24:03,241 --> 00:24:05,106
All the boys say I'm ugly.
377
00:24:06,945 --> 00:24:11,075
Mama was third runner-up in
the Miss South Carolina pageant.
378
00:24:11,183 --> 00:24:14,880
I wish you'd quit
feeling sorry for yourself.
379
00:24:15,053 --> 00:24:17,180
Now, that's ugly.
380
00:24:18,190 --> 00:24:21,785
Ugly is something that
goes up inside you.
381
00:24:21,927 --> 00:24:25,419
It's mean and hurtful, like them boys.
382
00:24:26,731 --> 00:24:28,528
Now you're not one of them, is you?
383
00:24:29,534 --> 00:24:31,502
I didn't think so, honey.
384
00:24:36,675 --> 00:24:37,699
Every day...
385
00:24:39,678 --> 00:24:42,511
Every day you're not
dead in the ground,
386
00:24:42,647 --> 00:24:47,243
when you wake up in the morning, you're
gonna have to make some decisions.
387
00:24:48,687 --> 00:24:51,155
Got to ask yourself this question:
388
00:24:51,823 --> 00:24:53,450
"Am I gonna believe
389
00:24:53,558 --> 00:24:58,257
all them bad things them fools
say about me today?"
390
00:25:00,265 --> 00:25:01,323
You hear me?
391
00:25:01,466 --> 00:25:04,594
"Am I gonna believe all them bad things
392
00:25:04,769 --> 00:25:07,260
them fools say about me today?"
393
00:25:10,141 --> 00:25:11,267
All right?
394
00:25:14,446 --> 00:25:18,280
As for your mama,
she didn't pick her life.
395
00:25:19,718 --> 00:25:21,083
It picked her.
396
00:25:23,855 --> 00:25:25,015
But you...
397
00:25:27,726 --> 00:25:31,423
...you're gonna do
something big with yours.
398
00:25:32,531 --> 00:25:34,158
You wait and see.
399
00:25:36,501 --> 00:25:39,493
Come on, go home with me
till the dance over. Come on.
400
00:25:46,611 --> 00:25:49,273
[Chuckling]
401
00:26:00,892 --> 00:26:03,793
Miss Stein, you said in your letter
to write about what disturbs me,
402
00:26:03,929 --> 00:26:05,260
particularly if it bothers no one else.
403
00:26:05,397 --> 00:26:06,421
Come on.
404
00:26:06,565 --> 00:26:08,396
And I understand that now.
405
00:26:09,768 --> 00:26:10,962
Continue.
406
00:26:12,037 --> 00:26:14,767
I'd like to write something
from the point of view of the help.
407
00:26:16,274 --> 00:26:18,868
These coloured women
raise white children,
408
00:26:18,977 --> 00:26:22,310
and in 20 years,
those children become the boss.
409
00:26:22,447 --> 00:26:25,211
We love them and they love us,
410
00:26:25,317 --> 00:26:27,649
but they can't even use the toilets
in our houses.
411
00:26:27,786 --> 00:26:29,413
Don't you find that ironic, Miss Stein?
412
00:26:29,554 --> 00:26:30,578
I'm listening.
413
00:26:32,090 --> 00:26:34,684
Margaret Mitchell glorified
the mammy figure,
414
00:26:34,859 --> 00:26:36,554
- [sighing]
- who dedicates her whole life
415
00:26:36,661 --> 00:26:37,753
to a white family.
416
00:26:37,896 --> 00:26:41,297
But nobody ever asked Mammy
how she felt about it.
417
00:26:41,433 --> 00:26:44,231
So, a side to this never before heard?
418
00:26:44,336 --> 00:26:46,304
Yes.
419
00:26:46,438 --> 00:26:49,305
'Cause nobody ever really
talks about it down here.
420
00:26:52,110 --> 00:26:53,941
Skeeter, who are you
talking to in there?
421
00:26:54,946 --> 00:26:56,311
Go away!
422
00:26:59,918 --> 00:27:02,910
- Who was that?
- My mother.
423
00:27:03,021 --> 00:27:04,613
Look.
424
00:27:04,756 --> 00:27:08,248
No maid in her right mind is ever gonna
tell you the truth.
425
00:27:08,360 --> 00:27:11,955
That's a hell of a risk to take in
a place like Jackson, Mississippi.
426
00:27:12,097 --> 00:27:13,496
I already have a maid.
427
00:27:15,467 --> 00:27:18,994
Really? A Negro maid has already agreed
to speak with you?
428
00:27:19,804 --> 00:27:21,362
Yes, ma'am.
429
00:27:25,176 --> 00:27:28,202
Well... I guess I can read
what you come up with.
430
00:27:28,346 --> 00:27:30,541
The book biz could use
a little rattling.
431
00:27:30,682 --> 00:27:32,081
Thank you, Miss Stein.
432
00:27:32,250 --> 00:27:34,013
Hey, hey, hey, all I'm saying
433
00:27:34,152 --> 00:27:37,144
is that I'll let you know
if it's even worth pursuing.
434
00:27:37,288 --> 00:27:40,724
And for God's sake, you're
a 23-year-old educated woman.
435
00:27:40,859 --> 00:27:43,054
Go get yourself an apartment.
436
00:27:47,365 --> 00:27:49,060
[Skeeter] "Dear Miss Myrna:
437
00:27:50,001 --> 00:27:52,697
When I'm chopping onions, how do I
keep tears out of my eyes?"
438
00:27:52,837 --> 00:27:56,432
[Aibileen] Shoot, that's easy. You tell
her hold a matchstick between her teeth.
439
00:27:57,876 --> 00:27:59,434
Is it lit?
440
00:27:59,611 --> 00:28:01,238
No, ma'am.
441
00:28:03,548 --> 00:28:06,642
[Hilly] Miss Leefolt said
you could start right away.
442
00:28:06,751 --> 00:28:11,745
Build it just like the bathroom
at my house. Let's see. [gasping]
443
00:28:11,890 --> 00:28:15,553
- Right there. That will be nice.
- Yes, ma'am.
444
00:28:15,694 --> 00:28:18,128
[Thunder rumbling]
445
00:28:21,032 --> 00:28:23,398
My goodness, we got to run back
to the car. Come on.
446
00:28:23,902 --> 00:28:25,335
[Hilly] Bye, Skeeter!
447
00:28:28,873 --> 00:28:30,465
Aibileen.
448
00:28:30,642 --> 00:28:34,271
There's something else I want to
write about. I would need your help.
449
00:28:37,549 --> 00:28:41,542
I want to interview you about
what it's like to work as a maid.
450
00:28:41,686 --> 00:28:45,019
I'd like to do a book of interviews
about working for white families.
451
00:28:45,790 --> 00:28:49,556
And we could show what it's like
to work for, say, Elizabeth?
452
00:28:49,694 --> 00:28:52,959
You know what Miss Leefolt do to me if
she knew I was telling stories on her?
453
00:28:53,098 --> 00:28:56,261
I was thinking that we wouldn't
have to tell her.
454
00:28:56,401 --> 00:28:59,302
The other maids would have
to keep it a secret, too.
455
00:28:59,437 --> 00:29:00,870
Other maids?
456
00:29:02,240 --> 00:29:04,640
I was hoping to get four or five.
457
00:29:04,776 --> 00:29:06,368
[Wind blowing]
458
00:29:06,478 --> 00:29:09,311
To show what it's really like
in Jackson.
459
00:29:10,548 --> 00:29:12,277
[Thunder rolling]
460
00:29:12,417 --> 00:29:17,320
Show what y'all get paid,
and the babies and the bathrooms.
461
00:29:17,455 --> 00:29:18,717
The good and the bad.
462
00:29:18,823 --> 00:29:19,721
[Door slamming]
463
00:29:19,824 --> 00:29:22,258
I bought you this damn house.
I put up with your new clothes
464
00:29:22,393 --> 00:29:24,953
and trips to New Orleans,
but this takes the goddamn cake.
465
00:29:25,096 --> 00:29:26,324
[Elizabeth]
Hilly spoke to the surgeon general,
466
00:29:26,464 --> 00:29:29,194
and she also said it'll add value
to our home.
467
00:29:29,367 --> 00:29:32,200
I guess Mae Mobley can go to college
in that damn bathroom!
468
00:29:32,370 --> 00:29:33,632
Hilly's covering the cost and said
469
00:29:33,772 --> 00:29:35,637
you could just do William's taxes
to pay her back.
470
00:29:35,774 --> 00:29:37,833
We don't take orders
from the Holbrooks.
471
00:29:40,745 --> 00:29:42,645
Skeeter, how you doing?
472
00:29:44,082 --> 00:29:45,106
Fine.
473
00:29:46,184 --> 00:29:47,674
[Mae Mobley crying]
474
00:29:49,521 --> 00:29:51,011
Fix me a sandwich, Aibileen.
475
00:29:54,325 --> 00:29:56,623
Aibileen, Mae Mobley's
crying her eyes out.
476
00:30:00,799 --> 00:30:02,460
Skeeter.
477
00:30:03,067 --> 00:30:05,968
I'm sorry, but I think it's best
if you leave now.
478
00:30:06,104 --> 00:30:07,901
Oh, sure, sure.
479
00:30:08,072 --> 00:30:11,838
And this Miss Myrna thing isn't going
to work out with Aibileen.
480
00:30:13,011 --> 00:30:14,774
I'm sorry.
481
00:30:19,417 --> 00:30:20,577
[Thunder cracking]
482
00:30:20,752 --> 00:30:22,242
[Rain pouring]
483
00:30:25,323 --> 00:30:28,884
You're making it hotter,
flapping your arms like that, Minny.
484
00:30:38,169 --> 00:30:40,797
Look how big the waves are, Minny.
485
00:30:40,905 --> 00:30:42,202
[Wind howling]
486
00:30:42,340 --> 00:30:45,605
Let's go to the beach.
Run, get Mr Walters!
487
00:30:45,777 --> 00:30:47,506
He loves riding these waves!
488
00:30:47,645 --> 00:30:49,943
You know we went to Biloxi
on our honeymoon?
489
00:30:50,114 --> 00:30:51,581
Yes, ma'am.
490
00:30:52,483 --> 00:30:55,418
Are we in Biloxi, Minny?
491
00:30:56,554 --> 00:30:59,580
No, ma'am. We ain't.
492
00:31:02,927 --> 00:31:06,920
Why don't you sit down here for a spell.
493
00:31:08,132 --> 00:31:12,899
And then me and you will go on down
to the beach in a little while.
494
00:31:13,037 --> 00:31:14,402
How about that?
495
00:31:24,015 --> 00:31:25,846
[Rattling]
496
00:31:26,851 --> 00:31:28,284
Uh...
497
00:31:29,187 --> 00:31:30,211
Miss Hilly?
498
00:31:30,355 --> 00:31:31,947
Mm-hm?
499
00:31:34,492 --> 00:31:35,789
Never mind.
500
00:31:35,927 --> 00:31:38,862
You go on ahead and use
the inside bath, Minny, it's all right.
501
00:31:38,963 --> 00:31:41,932
Oh, for crying out loud,
it's just a little rain.
502
00:31:42,834 --> 00:31:45,632
She can go on up and get an umbrella
from William's study.
503
00:31:46,271 --> 00:31:50,071
I believe she was working for me
before you dragged us both here.
504
00:31:52,110 --> 00:31:53,475
[Scoffing]
505
00:31:53,611 --> 00:31:55,806
Daddy ruined you.
506
00:31:59,250 --> 00:32:01,150
I'm just gonna get your tea.
507
00:32:26,945 --> 00:32:29,038
[Door handle rattling]
508
00:32:30,114 --> 00:32:31,342
[Hilly] Minny?
509
00:32:32,684 --> 00:32:34,379
Minny, are you in there?
510
00:32:36,421 --> 00:32:37,786
Yes, ma'am.
511
00:32:38,589 --> 00:32:40,853
And just what are you doing?
512
00:32:44,929 --> 00:32:45,987
[Flushing]
513
00:32:48,700 --> 00:32:50,395
[Shouting] Get off my toilet!
514
00:32:50,568 --> 00:32:52,695
[Pounding on door]
515
00:32:54,105 --> 00:32:55,470
[Exclaiming angrily]
516
00:32:55,606 --> 00:32:58,200
You are fired, Minny Jackson!
517
00:33:09,988 --> 00:33:11,751
Go on!
518
00:33:21,265 --> 00:33:23,961
[Aibileen] Eighteen people
died in Jackson that day.
519
00:33:25,203 --> 00:33:27,194
Ten white and eight black.
520
00:33:28,139 --> 00:33:31,108
- [Aibileen murmuring]
- [Mae Mobley fretting]
521
00:33:31,275 --> 00:33:35,678
God don't pay no mind to colour once
He decide to set a tornado loose.
522
00:33:35,813 --> 00:33:38,748
Aibee's here, honey.
523
00:33:38,883 --> 00:33:40,441
Aibee's here.
524
00:33:51,963 --> 00:33:54,796
[Fly buzzing]
525
00:34:00,805 --> 00:34:02,102
[Footsteps approaching]
526
00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:05,437
[Elizabeth] Hurry, Aibileen! Mae Mobley
is up, and I'm off to the doctor!
527
00:34:10,348 --> 00:34:14,580
That's Aibee's bathroom, Mama.
Hey, Aibee!
528
00:34:14,719 --> 00:34:17,210
No, no, no, honey.
Promise me you won't go in there, OK?
529
00:34:17,355 --> 00:34:18,686
- [Flushing]
- Yes, ma'am.
530
00:34:19,190 --> 00:34:20,714
I'm right here, Baby Girl.
531
00:34:22,727 --> 00:34:25,127
Isn't it so nice
to have your own, Aibileen?
532
00:34:25,263 --> 00:34:26,423
Yes, ma'am.
533
00:34:41,813 --> 00:34:45,442
You're my real mama, Aibee.
534
00:34:52,890 --> 00:34:55,256
[Indistinct conversation]
535
00:35:10,942 --> 00:35:13,308
- Is that Minny?
- Minny.
536
00:35:14,045 --> 00:35:15,876
Hey, Aibileen!
537
00:35:16,581 --> 00:35:17,605
Hey, Minny!
538
00:35:17,748 --> 00:35:19,613
Mm-hmm.
539
00:35:19,750 --> 00:35:20,944
Where you headed?
540
00:35:22,286 --> 00:35:25,346
I got some business to tend to,
so y'all just mind your own.
541
00:35:26,491 --> 00:35:27,981
All right, then. Well, bye!
542
00:35:28,126 --> 00:35:29,957
Bye!
543
00:35:30,094 --> 00:35:32,790
Now is she mad at me 'cause I got
that job at Miss Hilly's?
544
00:35:32,930 --> 00:35:35,626
Don't worry about her.
She always mad about something.
545
00:35:37,635 --> 00:35:39,102
[Skeeter] Aibileen.
546
00:35:42,640 --> 00:35:44,665
Yes, ma'am. Everything OK?
547
00:35:44,809 --> 00:35:46,970
Yeah, I just wanted to talk to you.
548
00:35:47,879 --> 00:35:50,177
You got some more
Miss Myrna questions for me?
549
00:35:50,314 --> 00:35:52,009
Oh, no, I just wanted to talk about...
550
00:35:52,150 --> 00:35:53,242
[horn honking]
551
00:35:55,853 --> 00:35:58,321
We never finished our conversation
at Elizabeth's.
552
00:35:58,456 --> 00:36:00,754
About that book I want to write?
553
00:36:15,540 --> 00:36:18,407
I'd really like
to interview you, Aibileen.
554
00:36:19,377 --> 00:36:20,708
I know it's scary.
555
00:36:25,016 --> 00:36:27,678
They set my cousin
Shinelle's car on fire,
556
00:36:27,818 --> 00:36:29,877
just 'cause she went down
to the voting station.
557
00:36:30,021 --> 00:36:32,285
A book like this has never
been written before.
558
00:36:32,456 --> 00:36:34,151
'Cause there's a reason.
559
00:36:34,258 --> 00:36:37,159
I do this with you, I might as well
burn my own house down.
560
00:36:37,261 --> 00:36:38,592
I promise we'll be careful.
561
00:36:38,729 --> 00:36:41,220
This already ain't careful,
Miss Skeeter!
562
00:36:46,470 --> 00:36:49,200
You not knowing that is what's
scaring me the most.
563
00:36:49,340 --> 00:36:51,433
Scare me more than Jim Crow.
564
00:36:54,278 --> 00:36:55,506
All right.
565
00:36:56,247 --> 00:36:57,908
Here's my phone number.
566
00:37:01,519 --> 00:37:04,852
- My car's here. I could take you home.
- No, ma'am.
567
00:37:16,367 --> 00:37:20,201
[Aibileen] "No person shall
require any white female
568
00:37:20,304 --> 00:37:24,764
to nurse in wards or rooms
in which Negro men are placed.
569
00:37:26,744 --> 00:37:32,114
Books shall not be interchangeable
between the white and coloured schools,
570
00:37:33,284 --> 00:37:37,311
but shall continue to be used
by the race first using them.
571
00:37:39,624 --> 00:37:44,960
No coloured barber shall serve as
a barber to white women or girls.
572
00:37:46,897 --> 00:37:49,263
- Any person printing, publishing
- [phone ringing]
573
00:37:49,400 --> 00:37:51,265
Or circulating written matter
574
00:37:51,402 --> 00:37:56,669
urging for public acceptance or social
equality between whites and Negroes
575
00:37:56,807 --> 00:37:58,968
is subject to imprisonment."
576
00:38:00,211 --> 00:38:01,235
Hello?
577
00:38:01,345 --> 00:38:04,576
[Sighs]
Aibileen, I done went and did it now.
578
00:38:05,583 --> 00:38:07,642
I went to Miss Hilly's house
this afternoon.
579
00:38:08,019 --> 00:38:09,316
[Aibileen] Why, Minny?
580
00:38:09,453 --> 00:38:12,786
[Minny] She done told every white woman
in town I'm a thief.
581
00:38:12,923 --> 00:38:15,391
Said I stole a candelabra.
582
00:38:17,561 --> 00:38:19,188
But I got her back.
583
00:38:19,330 --> 00:38:21,025
What you did?
584
00:38:22,333 --> 00:38:23,698
[Minny] I can't tell you.
585
00:38:25,036 --> 00:38:27,061
I ain't telling nobody.
586
00:38:28,372 --> 00:38:30,863
[Doorbell ringing]
587
00:38:31,442 --> 00:38:35,310
I done something terrible awful
to that woman,
588
00:38:35,446 --> 00:38:38,040
and now she know what I done.
589
00:38:38,182 --> 00:38:39,513
Sorry.
590
00:38:43,788 --> 00:38:44,812
Minny.
591
00:38:44,955 --> 00:38:46,980
She got what she deserved, Aibileen.
592
00:38:48,292 --> 00:38:50,954
But now I ain't gonna never get
no job again.
593
00:38:52,863 --> 00:38:55,195
Oh, Lord, Leroy gonna kill me.
594
00:38:56,634 --> 00:38:57,692
[Sighing]
595
00:38:57,835 --> 00:38:59,530
[Door opening]
596
00:38:59,670 --> 00:39:01,228
[Footsteps]
597
00:39:01,372 --> 00:39:02,396
Leroy?
598
00:39:04,709 --> 00:39:06,506
[Leroy] What you done did now, Minny?
599
00:39:06,644 --> 00:39:07,906
[Clattering]
600
00:39:08,045 --> 00:39:10,411
- [Leroy] Get off that phone, woman!
- [Minny] Leroy, please!
601
00:39:10,548 --> 00:39:13,108
Minny? Minny!
602
00:39:13,284 --> 00:39:15,514
[Minny] Please! Please!
603
00:39:15,653 --> 00:39:16,779
[Leroy] Come here!
604
00:39:25,062 --> 00:39:29,021
[Man] Please open your Bibles to Exodus.
605
00:39:29,667 --> 00:39:32,431
Chapter four, verse ten.
606
00:39:32,903 --> 00:39:37,465
God, having asked Moses
to free the Israelites...
607
00:39:37,641 --> 00:39:39,108
[congregation murmuring]
608
00:39:39,243 --> 00:39:40,870
...Moses answered:
609
00:39:42,213 --> 00:39:46,582
"Oh, my Lord. I am not eloquent.
610
00:39:47,418 --> 00:39:51,718
I am slow of speech and slow of tongue."
611
00:39:51,856 --> 00:39:54,086
[Murmuring in agreement]
612
00:39:54,225 --> 00:39:58,628
See, courage isn't just
about being brave.
613
00:39:58,763 --> 00:39:59,821
[All] Amen!
614
00:39:59,997 --> 00:40:02,227
Courage is daring to do what is right
615
00:40:02,433 --> 00:40:05,300
in spite of the weakness of our flesh.
616
00:40:05,436 --> 00:40:07,836
And God tells us,
617
00:40:08,539 --> 00:40:11,303
commands us, compels us,
618
00:40:11,442 --> 00:40:13,740
- to love. Amen?
- Amen.
619
00:40:13,878 --> 00:40:15,402
[Piano begins playing]
620
00:40:16,213 --> 00:40:17,612
[Preacher] See, love,
621
00:40:17,748 --> 00:40:21,411
as exemplified
by our Lord Jesus Christ,
622
00:40:21,552 --> 00:40:25,420
is to be prepared to put yourself
in harm's way
623
00:40:25,556 --> 00:40:27,524
- for your fellow man.
- [All agreeing]
624
00:40:27,691 --> 00:40:29,989
And by your fellow man,
I mean your brother,
625
00:40:30,361 --> 00:40:34,991
your sister, your neighbour,
your friend and your enemy.
626
00:40:35,132 --> 00:40:39,159
If you can love your enemy,
you already have the victory.
627
00:40:39,303 --> 00:40:41,430
Let's stand. All right.
628
00:40:42,740 --> 00:40:44,935
[All singing up-tempo song]
629
00:40:55,486 --> 00:40:58,080
[Knocking at door]
630
00:41:02,993 --> 00:41:04,324
Quick. Come quick.
631
00:41:04,462 --> 00:41:07,761
I parked way up on State Street and
caught a cab here, like you asked.
632
00:41:07,865 --> 00:41:09,423
Got dropped two streets over?
633
00:41:09,533 --> 00:41:11,023
Mm-hm.
634
00:41:25,115 --> 00:41:28,482
I know now that it's against the law,
what we're doing.
635
00:41:35,993 --> 00:41:37,824
I've never seen you
out of uniform before.
636
00:41:39,463 --> 00:41:41,260
You look really nice.
637
00:41:42,366 --> 00:41:43,594
Thank you.
638
00:42:01,886 --> 00:42:04,753
I ain't never had no white person
in my house before.
639
00:42:06,857 --> 00:42:08,381
Miss Skeeter...
640
00:42:11,128 --> 00:42:15,827
...what if you don't like what I
got to say... about white people?
641
00:42:17,401 --> 00:42:19,164
This isn't about me.
642
00:42:20,804 --> 00:42:22,396
It doesn't matter how I feel.
643
00:42:30,748 --> 00:42:33,945
You gonna have to change my name.
Mine, Miss Leefolt's. Everybody.
644
00:42:35,419 --> 00:42:37,512
Do you have other maids
that are interested?
645
00:42:39,390 --> 00:42:41,415
That gonna be hard.
646
00:42:41,559 --> 00:42:43,254
What about Minny?
647
00:42:43,394 --> 00:42:44,986
Minny got her some stories,
sure enough,
648
00:42:45,162 --> 00:42:48,996
but she ain't real keen on talking
to white peoples right now.
649
00:42:52,169 --> 00:42:54,763
What does it feel like
to raise a white child
650
00:42:54,905 --> 00:42:57,806
when your own child's at home being
looked after by somebody else?
651
00:43:00,678 --> 00:43:02,202
It feel...
652
00:43:14,558 --> 00:43:15,786
Is that your son?
653
00:43:20,931 --> 00:43:22,831
Yes, ma'am.
654
00:43:22,967 --> 00:43:25,162
Can we move on to the next question?
655
00:43:25,302 --> 00:43:28,237
You don't have to call me ma'am.
656
00:43:28,772 --> 00:43:30,797
Not here.
657
00:43:36,747 --> 00:43:37,805
Uh...
658
00:43:37,948 --> 00:43:40,382
Do you want to talk about the bathroom?
659
00:43:41,218 --> 00:43:44,187
Or anything about Miss Leefolt?
660
00:43:45,155 --> 00:43:49,819
How she pays you, or has she ever
yelled at you in front of Mae Mobley?
661
00:43:54,231 --> 00:43:57,598
I thought I might write my stories down
and read them to you.
662
00:43:58,268 --> 00:44:00,429
Ain't no different than writing down
my prayers.
663
00:44:04,308 --> 00:44:05,741
OK.
664
00:44:07,277 --> 00:44:08,335
Sure.
665
00:44:15,686 --> 00:44:18,177
I don't say my prayers out loud.
666
00:44:18,322 --> 00:44:21,519
I can get my point across
a lot better writing them down.
667
00:44:21,659 --> 00:44:26,722
I write an hour,
sometimes two, every night.
668
00:44:26,864 --> 00:44:31,563
And after my prayers last night,
I got some stories down, too.
669
00:44:34,838 --> 00:44:36,169
Go ahead.
670
00:44:45,749 --> 00:44:48,877
"My first white baby to ever look after
671
00:44:49,019 --> 00:44:52,250
was named Alton Carrington Speers.
672
00:44:52,389 --> 00:44:56,450
It was 1925, and I had just turned 14.
673
00:44:57,094 --> 00:45:00,257
I dropped out of school
to help Mama with the bills.
674
00:45:00,397 --> 00:45:02,922
Alton's mama died of lung disease."
675
00:45:05,102 --> 00:45:06,399
[Sighs]
676
00:45:06,537 --> 00:45:10,473
I loved that baby. And he loved me.
677
00:45:12,910 --> 00:45:16,038
That's when I learned I could make
children feel proud of theyself.
678
00:45:18,716 --> 00:45:22,208
Alton used to always be asking me
how come I was black.
679
00:45:22,352 --> 00:45:24,411
Just ate him up.
680
00:45:24,555 --> 00:45:28,457
And one time, I told him it was because
I drank too much coffee. [chortling]
681
00:45:32,696 --> 00:45:35,358
You should have seen his face.
682
00:45:47,711 --> 00:45:50,305
This was just so great.
683
00:45:52,282 --> 00:45:55,615
I can't tell you how much I appreciate
your doing this with me.
684
00:45:56,820 --> 00:45:58,583
What changed your mind?
685
00:46:00,324 --> 00:46:01,416
God.
686
00:46:03,560 --> 00:46:05,528
And Miss Hilly Holbrook.
687
00:46:05,696 --> 00:46:05,796
[Radio on, indistinct]
688
00:46:05,796 --> 00:46:07,741
[Radio on, indistinct]
689
00:46:18,742 --> 00:46:23,441
Miss Hilly, I would like to ask you
and Mr William something.
690
00:46:26,850 --> 00:46:30,946
My twin boys graduated from high school,
both on the honour roll.
691
00:46:31,588 --> 00:46:35,080
Me and my husband, we been saving
for years to send them to Tougaloo.
692
00:46:37,060 --> 00:46:40,188
We're short about $75
on one of the tuitions.
693
00:46:42,199 --> 00:46:47,193
Whoo! I am late. I gotta get going.
694
00:46:50,140 --> 00:46:51,368
See you tonight, honey.
695
00:46:51,508 --> 00:46:52,566
OK.
696
00:46:52,976 --> 00:46:54,841
[Door opens, closes]
697
00:46:54,978 --> 00:46:56,138
Go on.
698
00:46:59,616 --> 00:47:02,517
Well, now we're... [clears throat]
699
00:47:02,653 --> 00:47:05,383
...faced with having to choose
700
00:47:05,522 --> 00:47:08,184
which son can go if we don't
come up with the money.
701
00:47:09,359 --> 00:47:12,021
Would you consider giving us a loan?
702
00:47:12,763 --> 00:47:17,996
I'd work every day for free
till it was paid off.
703
00:47:18,135 --> 00:47:22,162
That's not working for free.
That's paying off a debt.
704
00:47:24,641 --> 00:47:26,165
Yes, ma'am.
705
00:47:30,047 --> 00:47:34,347
As a Christian, I'm doing you a favour.
706
00:47:36,053 --> 00:47:40,285
See, God don't give charity to those
who are well and able.
707
00:47:41,458 --> 00:47:45,258
You need to come up with this money
on your own. OK?
708
00:47:47,464 --> 00:47:49,523
Yes, ma'am.
709
00:47:49,666 --> 00:47:51,156
You'll thank me one day.
710
00:47:53,670 --> 00:47:57,037
[Minny] You cooking white food,
you taste it with a different spoon.
711
00:47:57,741 --> 00:47:59,902
If they see you put the tasting spoon
back in the pot,
712
00:48:00,110 --> 00:48:01,407
might as well throw it all out.
713
00:48:01,545 --> 00:48:02,739
Spoon, too.
714
00:48:02,880 --> 00:48:06,111
And you use the same cup, same fork,
same plate every day.
715
00:48:06,250 --> 00:48:07,877
And you put it up in the cabinet.
716
00:48:08,018 --> 00:48:10,748
You tell that white woman that's where
you're gonna keep it from now on out.
717
00:48:10,888 --> 00:48:12,719
Don't do it and see what happens.
718
00:48:12,856 --> 00:48:14,551
Morning, ladies.
719
00:48:14,691 --> 00:48:16,386
When you're serving white folks coffee,
720
00:48:16,526 --> 00:48:17,857
set it down in front of them.
721
00:48:17,961 --> 00:48:20,657
Don't hand it to them,
'cause your hands can't touch.
722
00:48:21,431 --> 00:48:24,195
And don't hit on they children.
723
00:48:24,301 --> 00:48:26,895
White folks like to do
they own spanking.
724
00:48:28,171 --> 00:48:30,662
And last thing. Come here.
725
00:48:31,942 --> 00:48:33,204
Look at me.
726
00:48:33,310 --> 00:48:35,676
No sass-mouthing.
727
00:48:37,781 --> 00:48:40,215
No sass-mouthing.
728
00:48:40,317 --> 00:48:42,080
I mean it.
729
00:48:47,257 --> 00:48:48,622
Give your mama a kiss.
730
00:48:51,261 --> 00:48:55,789
[Aibileen] Leroy had made Sugar quit
school to help him with the bills.
731
00:48:59,636 --> 00:49:03,094
And every day Minny
went without a job,
732
00:49:03,240 --> 00:49:06,004
might have been a day Leroy
took her from our world.
733
00:49:10,447 --> 00:49:12,244
Good morning, everybody.
734
00:49:19,089 --> 00:49:20,386
But I knew.
735
00:49:20,557 --> 00:49:24,857
I knew the only white lady Miss Hilly
hadn't gotten to with her lies.
736
00:49:33,236 --> 00:49:34,965
[Excitedly] Hey!
737
00:49:35,105 --> 00:49:38,165
[Giggling] Come on!
738
00:49:38,308 --> 00:49:42,802
No sass-mouthing, Minny Jackson.
No sass-mouthing.
739
00:49:44,681 --> 00:49:47,343
Aibileen said you'd be on time.
740
00:49:51,588 --> 00:49:53,488
I'm Celia Rae Foote.
741
00:49:53,623 --> 00:49:55,318
I'm Minny Jackson.
742
00:49:56,927 --> 00:49:59,987
You, uh... cooking something?
743
00:50:01,164 --> 00:50:04,622
One of those upside-down cakes
from a magazine.
744
00:50:04,735 --> 00:50:08,535
It ain't working out too good.
Come on, let's get you a cold Coca-Cola.
745
00:50:11,208 --> 00:50:12,232
Come on.
746
00:50:14,344 --> 00:50:16,403
This here is the kitchen.
747
00:50:17,647 --> 00:50:19,979
What in the hell?
748
00:50:23,320 --> 00:50:25,754
I guess I got some learning to do.
749
00:50:26,490 --> 00:50:29,550
[Scoffs] You sure do.
750
00:50:29,693 --> 00:50:32,753
Johnny's grandmama left him this house
when she died.
751
00:50:32,896 --> 00:50:35,922
And then Johnny's mama
wouldn't let me change a thing.
752
00:50:36,066 --> 00:50:38,091
But if I had it my way,
753
00:50:38,235 --> 00:50:43,138
this place would be wall-to-wall
white carpet with gold trim.
754
00:50:43,306 --> 00:50:45,467
None of this old stuff.
755
00:50:45,642 --> 00:50:47,940
The main house has
five beds and baths,
756
00:50:48,078 --> 00:50:52,412
and then the pool house has
two more beds and baths.
757
00:50:52,549 --> 00:50:54,744
When y'all gonna start
having some children,
758
00:50:54,885 --> 00:50:57,012
filling up all these empty beds?
759
00:50:59,122 --> 00:51:01,784
- I'm pregnant now.
- Oh.
760
00:51:01,925 --> 00:51:05,452
Gonna be eating for two.
That's double the cooking.
761
00:51:06,463 --> 00:51:09,398
I know. It's an awful lot to do.
762
00:51:10,400 --> 00:51:13,494
Five other maids have
already turned me down.
763
00:51:14,471 --> 00:51:17,133
Let me at least get you some bus money.
764
00:51:17,274 --> 00:51:20,732
Now, uh... when did you hear me say
I don't want to clean this house?
765
00:51:21,945 --> 00:51:25,244
Wait. So you'll do it?
766
00:51:28,151 --> 00:51:29,243
[Shrieks]
767
00:51:29,386 --> 00:51:30,944
[Laughing happily]
768
00:51:31,755 --> 00:51:33,484
Ooh. No hugging. No hugging.
769
00:51:34,624 --> 00:51:38,993
I'm sorry. This is the first time
I've hired a maid.
770
00:51:39,896 --> 00:51:41,454
Come on.
771
00:51:41,598 --> 00:51:43,828
[Laughing, giggling]
772
00:51:47,704 --> 00:51:51,162
- You hungry?
- No, ma'am. Hold on a minute.
773
00:51:51,308 --> 00:51:53,401
We gots to talk about
some things first.
774
00:51:55,512 --> 00:51:57,446
Oh.
775
00:51:57,581 --> 00:51:59,208
I work Sunday through Friday.
776
00:51:59,382 --> 00:52:02,408
No, you can't work at all
on the weekends.
777
00:52:02,519 --> 00:52:05,955
OK. What time you want me here?
778
00:52:07,090 --> 00:52:10,958
After 9.00, and you gotta leave
before 4.00.
779
00:52:12,095 --> 00:52:13,289
OK.
780
00:52:13,430 --> 00:52:15,159
Now...
781
00:52:15,298 --> 00:52:16,890
What your husband say you can pay?
782
00:52:18,535 --> 00:52:20,662
Johnny doesn't know
I'm bringing in help.
783
00:52:20,804 --> 00:52:22,897
And what Mr Johnny gonna do
when he come home
784
00:52:23,073 --> 00:52:25,234
and find a coloured woman in his house?
785
00:52:25,408 --> 00:52:28,206
It's not like I'd be fibbing.
786
00:52:28,345 --> 00:52:30,813
I just want him to think I can do this
on my own.
787
00:52:32,849 --> 00:52:35,249
I really need a maid.
788
00:52:37,220 --> 00:52:39,654
I'll be here tomorrow morning
about 9.15.
789
00:52:39,789 --> 00:52:41,586
[Chuckling]
790
00:52:41,758 --> 00:52:42,884
Great.
791
00:52:46,096 --> 00:52:48,564
- Miss Celia?
- Hmm?
792
00:52:49,132 --> 00:52:51,032
I think you done burned up your cake.
793
00:52:54,104 --> 00:52:55,469
Doggone it!
794
00:52:55,572 --> 00:52:58,598
[Running]
795
00:53:01,344 --> 00:53:03,869
[Hilly] OK, let's see.
What's first up on the agenda?
796
00:53:04,981 --> 00:53:10,180
We are running behind on our coat drive.
Hurry up and clean out those closets.
797
00:53:10,320 --> 00:53:15,383
But our Christmas benefit, however,
is right on schedule. Mary Beth?
798
00:53:16,560 --> 00:53:21,293
Well, thanks to y'all, I can announce
that we already filled
799
00:53:21,464 --> 00:53:24,524
every raffle slot for baked goods!
800
00:53:24,668 --> 00:53:26,260
[All cheering]
801
00:53:26,903 --> 00:53:30,430
[Hilly] Think we can put a dent in
African children's hunger this year?
802
00:53:31,508 --> 00:53:33,601
A big dent!
803
00:53:36,880 --> 00:53:37,904
Now...
804
00:53:38,048 --> 00:53:40,710
...I just found out
the surgeon general
805
00:53:40,850 --> 00:53:44,251
has reviewed the Home Health
Sanitation Initiative that I drafted,
806
00:53:44,387 --> 00:53:48,414
and he passed it along
to Governor Barnett!
807
00:53:49,159 --> 00:53:52,595
Skeeter, when can we expect to see
the initiative in the newsletter?
808
00:53:52,729 --> 00:53:54,424
I gave it to you a month ago.
809
00:53:54,564 --> 00:53:56,532
I gave that to you myself.
810
00:53:56,633 --> 00:53:59,625
Would you please stand, Skeeter?
811
00:54:04,507 --> 00:54:06,441
I'll have it in there real soon.
812
00:54:09,412 --> 00:54:10,674
Great.
813
00:54:10,847 --> 00:54:12,678
[Up-tempo music]
814
00:54:18,989 --> 00:54:21,423
- Sorry I'm late.
- Hey.
815
00:54:29,299 --> 00:54:30,323
Thanks.
816
00:54:35,338 --> 00:54:38,603
Hilly, I really am sorry
about the newsletter.
817
00:54:38,742 --> 00:54:41,040
It's just with Mama being sick and all.
818
00:54:42,979 --> 00:54:44,708
Oh, it's fine.
819
00:54:47,083 --> 00:54:49,449
I made you the egg and olive on rye,
Miss Skeeter.
820
00:54:49,586 --> 00:54:51,986
Oh, thank you, Henry.
821
00:54:52,122 --> 00:54:53,646
You remembered.
822
00:54:53,790 --> 00:54:55,155
You're welcome.
823
00:54:57,627 --> 00:54:59,652
Oh, Hilly, tell her.
I can hardly stand it.
824
00:55:00,563 --> 00:55:03,123
He's coming.
825
00:55:03,266 --> 00:55:06,702
Oh, Skeeter, Stuart's definitely
coming this time. Next Saturday week.
826
00:55:06,836 --> 00:55:11,637
Well, he's cancelled twice before.
Don't you think maybe that's a sign?
827
00:55:11,775 --> 00:55:14,141
Don't you dare say that.
828
00:55:14,277 --> 00:55:16,040
You know I'm not gonna be his type.
829
00:55:16,179 --> 00:55:18,409
Damn it, Skeeter, I'm not gonna
let you miss out on this
830
00:55:18,581 --> 00:55:21,812
because your mother convinced you you're
not good enough for somebody like him.
831
00:55:25,822 --> 00:55:27,687
Saturday night.
832
00:56:05,829 --> 00:56:08,525
Good morning.
833
00:56:08,665 --> 00:56:11,600
Good morning, Baby Girl.
834
00:56:11,735 --> 00:56:14,067
Good morning.
835
00:56:26,516 --> 00:56:28,814
I reckon I'm ready to talk about
Miss Leefolt now.
836
00:56:31,888 --> 00:56:35,085
Baby Girl still gotta wear a diaper
when she sleep at night.
837
00:56:35,225 --> 00:56:37,489
And it don't get changed till
I get there in the morning.
838
00:56:37,660 --> 00:56:40,493
That about ten hours
she gotta sleep in her mess.
839
00:56:41,798 --> 00:56:44,426
Now Miss Leefolt pregnant
with her second baby.
840
00:56:45,235 --> 00:56:48,602
Lord... I pray this child
turn out good.
841
00:56:49,472 --> 00:56:52,305
It's a lonely road if a mama
don't think their child is pretty.
842
00:56:55,245 --> 00:56:57,110
That's very true.
843
00:57:00,950 --> 00:57:02,941
Miss Leefolt should not
be having babies.
844
00:57:07,390 --> 00:57:08,516
Write that down.
845
00:57:15,632 --> 00:57:18,328
Treelore would like me doing this.
846
00:57:18,468 --> 00:57:21,301
He always said we were gonna have
a writer in the family one day.
847
00:57:21,438 --> 00:57:23,872
I always thought it was gonna be him.
Maybe it's gonna be me.
848
00:57:24,941 --> 00:57:26,932
[Minny] Aibileen, Aibileen.
849
00:57:27,076 --> 00:57:29,874
They done set a bomb off
in Medgar Evers' carport.
850
00:57:38,388 --> 00:57:42,188
Yule Mae told me what y'all was up to.
I didn't want to believe it.
851
00:57:44,961 --> 00:57:48,021
And just what makes you think
coloured people need your help?
852
00:57:49,132 --> 00:57:50,759
- Why do you care?
- Minny.
853
00:57:50,867 --> 00:57:52,698
Maybe you just want
to get Aibileen in trouble.
854
00:57:52,836 --> 00:57:54,463
No.
855
00:57:54,604 --> 00:57:57,004
I want to show her perspective.
856
00:57:57,140 --> 00:58:00,906
So people might understand
what it's like from your side.
857
00:58:00,977 --> 00:58:03,673
Well, it's a real Fourth of July picnic.
858
00:58:04,214 --> 00:58:07,513
It's what we dream of doing
all weekend long.
859
00:58:07,650 --> 00:58:10,448
Get back into they house,
polish the silver.
860
00:58:10,553 --> 00:58:15,183
And we just love not making minimum wage
or getting Social Security.
861
00:58:17,126 --> 00:58:20,061
And how we love they children
when they little.
862
00:58:20,864 --> 00:58:24,027
And then they turn out
just like they mamas.
863
00:58:24,167 --> 00:58:25,225
I know.
864
00:58:27,237 --> 00:58:28,795
Maybe things can change.
865
00:58:28,905 --> 00:58:31,032
What law's gonna say you
gotta be nice to your maid?
866
00:58:31,174 --> 00:58:32,732
You don't have to do this now, Minny.
867
00:58:32,876 --> 00:58:34,537
You damn right I don't!
868
00:58:35,345 --> 00:58:37,404
You two give me the heart palpitations.
869
00:58:39,916 --> 00:58:41,213
[Door slamming]
870
00:58:41,885 --> 00:58:43,011
And that's a good mood.
871
00:58:43,152 --> 00:58:44,517
[Sighing]
872
00:58:44,654 --> 00:58:47,179
[Man chattering indistinctly]
873
00:58:55,131 --> 00:58:57,565
All right. I'm gonna do it.
874
00:58:57,700 --> 00:59:01,693
But I need to make sure she understands
this ain't no game we playing here.
875
00:59:03,706 --> 00:59:06,368
Slide your chair out from under
that table. Face me.
876
00:59:09,145 --> 00:59:12,911
I need to see you square on
at all times.
877
00:59:22,592 --> 00:59:24,219
I gotta come up with
your questions, too?
878
00:59:24,360 --> 00:59:25,452
Oh.
879
00:59:26,829 --> 00:59:31,061
Uh, let's begin
with where you were born.
880
00:59:31,200 --> 00:59:34,966
Belzoni, Mississippi,
on my great-auntie's sofa.
881
00:59:35,104 --> 00:59:36,264
Next.
882
00:59:36,406 --> 00:59:38,772
- I put the green beans in first.
- OK.
883
00:59:38,908 --> 00:59:42,071
Then I get on the pork chops so I can
get started on that cornbread.
884
00:59:42,211 --> 00:59:45,738
[Aibileen] Once Minny got to talking
about food, she liked to never stop.
885
00:59:47,450 --> 00:59:51,216
And when she got to talking about
the white ladies, it took all night.
886
00:59:51,321 --> 00:59:55,883
Then she say, "Oh, Minny,
I'm gonna give you a paid vacation."
887
00:59:55,992 --> 00:59:58,586
I ain't never had no paid vacation
in my life.
888
00:59:58,728 --> 01:00:01,322
A week later I come back,
and they done moved to Mobile.
889
01:00:01,464 --> 01:00:02,556
[Laughing]
890
01:00:02,665 --> 01:00:05,930
Miss Lazy Fingers scared I'd find
a new job before she moved.
891
01:00:06,069 --> 01:00:08,128
Ain't that right, Aibileen?
892
01:00:13,810 --> 01:00:15,471
We gots to get some more maids.
893
01:00:16,479 --> 01:00:18,970
It hard. You go try and see.
894
01:00:21,250 --> 01:00:22,774
OK, I will.
895
01:00:29,225 --> 01:00:30,624
We gone and done it now.
896
01:00:30,760 --> 01:00:32,660
[Laughing]
897
01:00:33,162 --> 01:00:38,361
Skeeter! Get down here! Something just
arrived from New York for you.
898
01:00:46,576 --> 01:00:47,600
[Shrieking]
899
01:00:53,950 --> 01:00:54,974
What is that?
900
01:00:55,118 --> 01:00:58,815
The Shinalator.
All the way from New York City.
901
01:00:59,622 --> 01:01:02,523
I'm a good mother.
Come on. Sit down.
902
01:01:04,060 --> 01:01:09,327
The whole system cost 11 dollars.
Even smells expensive.
903
01:01:10,967 --> 01:01:14,403
You're gonna look beautiful
on your date tonight.
904
01:01:14,537 --> 01:01:16,903
I can feel the hope in your fingers.
905
01:01:19,876 --> 01:01:21,901
Holy shit.
906
01:01:22,045 --> 01:01:24,673
- You shrunk five inches.
- Oh, my God.
907
01:01:24,814 --> 01:01:26,873
You'll be able to wear heels tonight.
908
01:01:27,684 --> 01:01:31,051
You're not leaving the house in those
awful Mexican man shoes.
909
01:01:31,187 --> 01:01:32,313
Can I take the Cadillac?
910
01:01:32,422 --> 01:01:34,890
We promised the Cadillac
to Carlton and Rebecca tonight,
911
01:01:35,024 --> 01:01:38,187
so William's cousin will just
have to come pick you up himself.
912
01:01:38,327 --> 01:01:40,921
- I'll take the truck.
- It's hooked up to the motor grader.
913
01:01:41,064 --> 01:01:42,088
I'll drive slow.
914
01:01:42,231 --> 01:01:45,029
[Mother] Skeeter! Skeeter!
915
01:01:45,168 --> 01:01:50,037
Now remember, no gentleman wants
to spend the evening with a sourpuss.
916
01:01:50,173 --> 01:01:53,438
Don't mope! Smile!
917
01:01:53,576 --> 01:01:58,946
And for heaven's sakes, don't sit like
some squaw Indian! Cross your ankles!
918
01:02:00,183 --> 01:02:01,616
I love you!
919
01:02:11,060 --> 01:02:12,687
Stuart, she'll be here any minute.
920
01:02:14,430 --> 01:02:15,488
Hey.
921
01:02:17,800 --> 01:02:19,165
Skeeter.
922
01:02:21,471 --> 01:02:25,567
Boys, we'll be right back. Y'all talk
about quarterbacks or something.
923
01:02:25,708 --> 01:02:27,505
Yule Mae, get Miss Skeeter a Coca-Cola.
924
01:02:27,677 --> 01:02:28,837
Yes, ma'am.
925
01:02:30,413 --> 01:02:34,611
[Swing music]
926
01:02:40,423 --> 01:02:41,447
[Whistling]
927
01:02:43,059 --> 01:02:44,083
Want a drink?
928
01:02:44,227 --> 01:02:46,058
Just water, please.
929
01:02:47,463 --> 01:02:51,456
[Sighing] Double Old Kentucky, straight
with a water back. Make that two backs.
930
01:02:51,601 --> 01:02:54,502
You sure you don't want to just make it
the whole bottle and a straw?
931
01:02:55,271 --> 01:02:57,967
Honey, there's the lieutenant governor.
Let's go say hi.
932
01:03:02,411 --> 01:03:04,936
Good to see you, sir.
You remember my wife?
933
01:03:05,081 --> 01:03:06,309
Hi, how are you? Good to see you.
934
01:03:06,449 --> 01:03:08,144
[Burping]
935
01:03:11,387 --> 01:03:14,686
So, what do you do with your time?
936
01:03:15,825 --> 01:03:16,883
You work?
937
01:03:17,660 --> 01:03:19,127
I write.
938
01:03:20,129 --> 01:03:22,654
But right now I'm working on
a domestic maintenance column
939
01:03:22,799 --> 01:03:23,891
for The Jackson Journal.
940
01:03:26,002 --> 01:03:27,196
You mean housekeeping.
941
01:03:28,337 --> 01:03:31,898
Jesus, I can't think of anything worse
than reading a cleaning column,
942
01:03:32,074 --> 01:03:33,905
except for maybe writing one.
943
01:03:34,076 --> 01:03:35,634
Well, I can.
944
01:03:35,778 --> 01:03:39,874
Working with a bunch of greasy,
stinky men in the middle of the ocean.
945
01:03:40,016 --> 01:03:43,543
It sounds like a ploy to find a husband,
becoming an expert in keeping house.
946
01:03:43,686 --> 01:03:47,349
Well, aren't you a genius?
You figured out my whole scheme.
947
01:03:47,490 --> 01:03:50,721
Isn't that what all you girls
from Ole Miss major in...
948
01:03:50,860 --> 01:03:52,589
...professional husband hunting?
949
01:03:52,762 --> 01:03:55,697
Who is hungry?
950
01:03:55,832 --> 01:03:59,461
I'm sorry, but were you dropped
on your head as an infant?
951
01:03:59,569 --> 01:04:01,196
Or were you just born stupid?
952
01:04:01,337 --> 01:04:02,599
[Coughing]
953
01:04:12,715 --> 01:04:14,615
[Squawking]
954
01:04:19,255 --> 01:04:21,086
[Chopping]
955
01:04:23,025 --> 01:04:25,084
So, what can you cook?
956
01:04:26,362 --> 01:04:29,695
Oh, um, I can cook cornpone.
957
01:04:30,833 --> 01:04:32,357
Boil potatoes.
958
01:04:33,369 --> 01:04:34,495
I can do grits.
959
01:04:34,604 --> 01:04:36,697
[Laughing]
960
01:04:38,007 --> 01:04:39,065
Well...
961
01:04:39,942 --> 01:04:43,901
...I reckon if there's anything you
ought to know about cooking, it's this.
962
01:04:44,046 --> 01:04:47,174
The most important invention since
they put mayonnaise in a jar.
963
01:04:49,285 --> 01:04:51,276
- You got gum in your hair,
- [sizzling]
964
01:04:51,420 --> 01:04:53,650
You got a squeaky door hinge...
965
01:04:53,823 --> 01:04:54,847
Crisco.
966
01:04:56,559 --> 01:04:58,220
How pretty.
967
01:05:00,162 --> 01:05:02,062
Looks like frosting.
968
01:05:02,198 --> 01:05:05,099
You got bags under your eyes.
969
01:05:05,234 --> 01:05:07,225
Want to soften your husband's
scaly feet.
970
01:05:08,304 --> 01:05:09,965
Mm-hm. Crisco.
971
01:05:11,374 --> 01:05:14,434
But it's best for frying chicken.
972
01:05:15,645 --> 01:05:17,340
Frying chicken just...
973
01:05:18,514 --> 01:05:20,607
...tend to make you
feel better about life.
974
01:05:24,120 --> 01:05:25,587
At least me, anyway.
975
01:05:26,923 --> 01:05:29,619
Mm, I love me some fried chicken.
976
01:05:31,193 --> 01:05:32,285
Now...
977
01:05:34,297 --> 01:05:35,321
...shake that.
978
01:05:35,464 --> 01:05:36,988
Oh.
979
01:05:41,804 --> 01:05:44,671
This is so much fun!
980
01:05:46,075 --> 01:05:49,567
All right, all right.
The chicken already dead, Miss Celia.
981
01:05:49,745 --> 01:05:52,441
[Giggling]
982
01:05:53,282 --> 01:05:54,681
Yep. He dead.
983
01:06:00,823 --> 01:06:02,290
[Sighing]
984
01:06:05,828 --> 01:06:07,193
[Celia] There you are.
985
01:06:08,497 --> 01:06:13,400
I'm starved. Looks so good.
986
01:06:13,936 --> 01:06:15,665
We done been over this, Miss Celia.
987
01:06:15,805 --> 01:06:19,707
You supposed to eat in the dining room.
That's how it works.
988
01:06:19,842 --> 01:06:21,036
Let me take your plate back.
989
01:06:21,677 --> 01:06:23,804
I'm fine right here, Minny.
990
01:06:35,624 --> 01:06:37,421
[Sighing]
991
01:06:43,299 --> 01:06:44,323
What?
992
01:06:45,735 --> 01:06:47,999
I just want you to know
I'm real grateful you're here.
993
01:06:48,137 --> 01:06:50,901
You gots plenty more
to be grateful for than me.
994
01:06:52,308 --> 01:06:55,675
And look, now I ain't
messing around no more.
995
01:06:55,811 --> 01:06:57,108
Now Mr Johnny gonna catch me here,
996
01:06:57,279 --> 01:07:00,180
and shoot me dead right here
on this no-wax floor.
997
01:07:01,183 --> 01:07:02,241
You gots to tell him.
998
01:07:02,385 --> 01:07:05,252
Ain't he wondering how
the cooking's so good?
999
01:07:05,388 --> 01:07:07,049
You're right.
1000
01:07:08,858 --> 01:07:10,883
Maybe we ought to
burn the chicken a little.
1001
01:07:12,962 --> 01:07:14,657
Minny don't burn chicken.
1002
01:07:17,333 --> 01:07:20,996
I like this Sarah Ross. She testifies
without complaining too much.
1003
01:07:21,103 --> 01:07:24,766
And that Bertha,
she's got chutzpah, I'll give her that.
1004
01:07:24,907 --> 01:07:26,272
So you liked it?
1005
01:07:26,409 --> 01:07:29,071
Eugenia, Martin Luther King
just invited
1006
01:07:29,211 --> 01:07:32,203
the entire country to march with him
in D.C. In August.
1007
01:07:32,348 --> 01:07:33,713
This many Negroes and whites
1008
01:07:33,849 --> 01:07:36,249
have not worked together since
Gone with the Wind.
1009
01:07:36,385 --> 01:07:39,149
How many stories have you
recorded thus far?
1010
01:07:39,321 --> 01:07:41,346
The ones you've read.
1011
01:07:41,457 --> 01:07:43,357
Two domestics, that's all?
1012
01:07:43,459 --> 01:07:44,756
[Scoffing]
1013
01:07:45,561 --> 01:07:47,495
[Skeeter] I'm real close to
getting more interviews.
1014
01:07:47,663 --> 01:07:51,690
Don't send me anything else
until you do have more maids.
1015
01:07:51,801 --> 01:07:54,702
Yes, ma'am. How... how many more?
1016
01:07:54,804 --> 01:07:57,739
I don't know. At least a dozen.
1017
01:07:57,873 --> 01:08:01,240
My advice to you is to write it
and write it fast
1018
01:08:01,377 --> 01:08:03,743
before this whole civil rights thing
blows over.
1019
01:08:03,879 --> 01:08:05,574
Now good night to you, Miss Phelan.
1020
01:08:18,027 --> 01:08:20,086
We need a dozen more.
1021
01:08:20,896 --> 01:08:25,162
Me and Aibileen done asked everybody
we know. Thirty-one maids.
1022
01:08:26,068 --> 01:08:28,127
They all too scared. Think we crazy.
1023
01:08:29,972 --> 01:08:32,133
If we don't get more,
we're not getting published.
1024
01:08:32,274 --> 01:08:35,266
[Minny] I gots plenty stories,
Miss Skeeter.
1025
01:08:35,411 --> 01:08:39,006
Just write them down
and invent the maid that said it.
1026
01:08:39,148 --> 01:08:41,742
You're already making up names.
Just make up the maids, too.
1027
01:08:41,851 --> 01:08:45,810
We're not gonna do that.
That would be wrong.
1028
01:08:45,955 --> 01:08:47,320
Don't give up on this, Miss Skeeter.
1029
01:08:47,456 --> 01:08:49,117
It wouldn't be real.
1030
01:08:50,626 --> 01:08:52,184
They killed my son.
1031
01:08:59,969 --> 01:09:02,233
He fell carrying two-by-fours
at the mill.
1032
01:09:03,806 --> 01:09:06,001
Truck run over him, crushed his lung.
1033
01:09:06,142 --> 01:09:07,769
[Whispering] Aibileen.
1034
01:09:11,080 --> 01:09:13,844
That white foreman threw his body
on back of a truck.
1035
01:09:14,617 --> 01:09:17,518
Drove to the coloured hospital...
1036
01:09:17,653 --> 01:09:19,644
...dumped him there and honked the horn.
1037
01:09:30,099 --> 01:09:34,331
There was nothing they could do,
so I brought my baby home.
1038
01:09:39,041 --> 01:09:41,339
[Voice breaking]
Laid him down on that sofa right there.
1039
01:09:44,914 --> 01:09:46,939
He died right in front of me.
1040
01:09:49,518 --> 01:09:53,181
He was just 24 years old, Miss Skeeter.
Best part of a person's life.
1041
01:09:54,790 --> 01:09:58,385
Anniversary of his death comes...
1042
01:09:58,527 --> 01:10:00,927
...every year, and I can't breathe.
1043
01:10:01,063 --> 01:10:03,293
But to y'all, it's just
another day of bridge.
1044
01:10:07,736 --> 01:10:09,226
You stop this...
1045
01:10:10,506 --> 01:10:14,306
...everything I wrote, he wrote,
everything he was is gonna die with him.
1046
01:10:24,520 --> 01:10:27,751
[Hilly] I am just honoured
to be hosting Elizabeth's shower.
1047
01:10:27,890 --> 01:10:30,120
Doesn't she look glowing, everybody?
1048
01:10:30,259 --> 01:10:32,750
- [Clapping]
- Yes, she does!
1049
01:10:32,895 --> 01:10:35,329
Honey, you hold on to it,
to the bitter end.
1050
01:10:35,497 --> 01:10:36,862
[Women laughing]
1051
01:10:36,966 --> 01:10:39,059
- I'll try.
- Well, congratulations.
1052
01:10:41,070 --> 01:10:43,197
I'm hungry, Mommy.
1053
01:10:43,305 --> 01:10:44,533
She's always hungry.
1054
01:10:44,640 --> 01:10:46,608
[All laughing]
1055
01:10:47,509 --> 01:10:49,101
You know she can hear you, Elizabeth.
1056
01:10:49,245 --> 01:10:53,545
[Aibileen] I'll cut you
a piece of cake, baby. Go on, now.
1057
01:10:57,553 --> 01:11:02,422
Aibileen, are you enjoying your new
bathroom over at Elizabeth's?
1058
01:11:02,558 --> 01:11:06,324
Nice to have your own.
Isn't it, Aibileen?
1059
01:11:10,866 --> 01:11:14,165
Yes, ma'am. And I thank you.
1060
01:11:14,303 --> 01:11:16,999
Separate, but equal.
1061
01:11:17,673 --> 01:11:20,141
That's what Ross Barnett says,
and you can't argue with the governor.
1062
01:11:20,276 --> 01:11:24,508
Well, certainly not in Mississippi,
the birthplace of modern-day government.
1063
01:11:40,829 --> 01:11:44,287
Hey, Miss Skeeter.
Can I get you something?
1064
01:11:44,433 --> 01:11:45,457
No, thanks.
1065
01:11:46,702 --> 01:11:49,136
Yule Mae, I wanted to talk to you
about something.
1066
01:11:51,674 --> 01:11:53,869
I already know what you're gonna ask,
Miss Skeeter.
1067
01:11:56,478 --> 01:11:58,275
Minny and Aibileen already did.
1068
01:12:03,385 --> 01:12:06,013
I'm trying to get my boys
off to college.
1069
01:12:07,856 --> 01:12:10,882
It's worthwhile what
y'all are doing, but...
1070
01:12:11,026 --> 01:12:13,654
...but my boys are worth more.
1071
01:12:14,396 --> 01:12:15,488
I understand.
1072
01:12:19,335 --> 01:12:22,827
What do you understand, Skeeter?
1073
01:12:24,940 --> 01:12:29,570
Yule Mae was just saying how excited she
is that her boys are going to college.
1074
01:12:30,379 --> 01:12:33,075
Did you also ask Miss Skeeter
if you could borrow money?
1075
01:12:33,882 --> 01:12:35,247
Of course not.
1076
01:12:37,386 --> 01:12:39,411
I'm gonna put Billy down for his nap.
1077
01:12:41,357 --> 01:12:42,790
Excuse me.
1078
01:12:45,828 --> 01:12:47,193
Come on, baby.
1079
01:12:49,298 --> 01:12:51,061
[Clearing throat]
1080
01:12:54,837 --> 01:12:59,604
Skeeter, are you intentionally not
putting my initiative in the newsletter?
1081
01:12:59,742 --> 01:13:03,576
No, not at all. I just have been
really busy with Mama.
1082
01:13:03,712 --> 01:13:05,577
I know.
1083
01:13:05,714 --> 01:13:09,377
I know, you must be so worried
about your mother, but...
1084
01:13:10,719 --> 01:13:12,277
I'm worried about you.
1085
01:13:13,322 --> 01:13:14,914
Reading this stuff?
1086
01:13:15,758 --> 01:13:19,717
Believe it or not, there are real
racists in this town.
1087
01:13:20,429 --> 01:13:22,624
If the wrong person caught you
with anything like that,
1088
01:13:22,765 --> 01:13:24,790
you'd be in serious trouble.
1089
01:13:26,668 --> 01:13:28,363
I'll be on the lookout.
1090
01:13:32,541 --> 01:13:34,566
Put my initiative in the newsletter.
1091
01:13:38,213 --> 01:13:39,441
OK?
1092
01:14:24,726 --> 01:14:27,160
[Footsteps approaching]
1093
01:14:28,931 --> 01:14:31,161
Skeeter, get up!
1094
01:14:31,300 --> 01:14:33,666
- No! What?
- We've got to get dressed.
1095
01:14:35,404 --> 01:14:36,530
What's wrong?
1096
01:14:36,672 --> 01:14:39,038
Don't panic. Don't panic.
1097
01:14:39,174 --> 01:14:44,111
There's a particularly tall and very
handsome man named Stuart here for you.
1098
01:14:45,147 --> 01:14:47,012
Oh, God.
1099
01:14:47,149 --> 01:14:49,174
Oh, mother.
1100
01:14:49,318 --> 01:14:51,878
You would not like him. Trust me.
1101
01:14:52,020 --> 01:14:53,317
He's a drunken asshole.
1102
01:14:53,455 --> 01:14:57,687
Love and hate are two horns on the same
goat, Eugenia, and you need a goat.
1103
01:14:57,826 --> 01:14:59,987
Put that on. Hurry!
1104
01:15:06,768 --> 01:15:08,167
Look, I know it was a few weeks back,
1105
01:15:08,303 --> 01:15:12,239
but I came to say I'm sorry
for the way I acted.
1106
01:15:12,374 --> 01:15:14,365
Who sent you, William or Hilly?
1107
01:15:14,510 --> 01:15:15,670
Neither.
1108
01:15:15,811 --> 01:15:18,211
Hilly. But I wanted to come, OK.
1109
01:15:18,347 --> 01:15:20,474
I was rude, and I've been
thinking about it a lot.
1110
01:15:21,016 --> 01:15:24,042
- Well, I haven't. So you can just go.
- Goddamn it!