The Director of 'Hidden Figures' on How His Movie Changed Him Forever [View all]

Sometimes you do save the best for last, and in the case of Hidden Figures, the final day’s shoot came with a wallop.

Playing a Black mathematician at NASA in the early 1960s, Taraji P. Henson scrambles into the office, disheveled and dripping rain, only to be chastised by her boss (Kevin Costner) for the length of her absence. Henson starts off cool, explaining that every time she has to use the restroom, she must run half a mile to the “colored” bathrooms. “Did you know that?” she asks. It’s here that her voice blooms into a beautiful, calibrated rage, each syllable unloading a year of mistreatment. “I work like a dog day and night. Living off the coffee from a pot that none of you want to touch,” she screams. The character regains her composure, though the room, filled with dozens of white men, stills with shock. Cut!

Which is when everyone on set burst into applause.

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