Emma Stone puts her hair in tight curls and puts on a Mississippi southern accent for her latest film, an inspiring civil rights tale called "The Help."
Starring as Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, Stone plays the enlightened college girl who comes back to her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi and sees old, dark traditions in a whole new light. As a new columnist for her local paper, she works to take up the cause of the horribly discriminated against black household maids, the women who helped raise her and deserve far better than that which her friends that stayed at home are subjecting them to.
Fearful of retribution, it takes an act of God and a lot of persistence to get her maid Aibileen (Viola Davis) and then Aibileen's friend Minny (Octavia Spencer) to cooperate. What comes out of it, though, is a truly groundbreaking movement.
It's a role that was meant for Stone, said Kathryn Stockett, the author of the controversial, best selling book on which the film is based.
"The minute I met [Stone], I knew I couldn't see whatever Skeeter looked in my head as a blonde because she was replaced by Emma," Stockett told People Magazine in November. "She was so clearly that person. And her mom is from Baton Rouge, so she got the accent."