"Sometimes you read a script and you just don't know what it's going to be."

If you're an author with aspirations of seeing your work adapted for film or TV, people love to look at you like you're a sad puppy. "Oh, but movies are never as good as the book," they say. But is that really true? Happily, no.

If you hear that there's a biopic coming out about an influential African-American icon, the six words you don't want to hear connected to it are "From the director of The Help".

I had the opportunity to talk to Davis about how she juggles motherhood, the new demands of fame, overcoming ageism and hair-ism in Hollywood and how her life has changed dramatically since The Help.

Hollywood movies are notoriously good at reducing complex problems to isolated, emotional experiences. The happy endings of films on racial themes reflect Americans' collective investment in concluding a conversation that has barely begun.