Octavia Spencer: ‘There are more interesting roles for me, Viola Davis, and Kerry Washington on TV’

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share via Email
• Copy Link

  Link Copied

There’s a new movement happening in television right now, with A-list African-American movie stars heading to TV.

Emmy nominee Kerry Washington arguably cracked a glass ceiling in Hollywood when her political thriller Scandal hit airways in 2012.

Other notable black actresses had noteworthy TV success in recent years, including Taraji P. Henson on CBS’s Person of Interest, Regina King on the TNT drama Southland and Angela Bassett on FX’s American Horror Story.

Halle Berry’s new CBS drama Extant is this summer’s top new series premiere, and next month, Oscar-nominee Viola Davis will teach all How to Get Away with Murder, when her new series, developed by Shonda Rhimes debuts on ABC.

Don’t leave Academy Award winning actress Octavia Spencer out of the mix. She’s heading to TV, starring as a nurse on Fox’s new series, Red Band Society, which premieres September 17.

In an interview with theGrio, while promoting her new film Get On Up, Spencer opened up about her move to TV.

“I start work next week on Red Band Society for Fox,” Spencer said. “There are more interesting roles for me and Volia [Davis] and Kerry [Washington] in television.”

“I’m not a decision maker… I’m just happy to be working,” Spencer added.

In an interview with The Daily Beast, Spencer went into more detail about her choice to take on a TV role, saying that the film roles she’s being offered are “too small.”

 The roles I’m being offered in film are too small to sink your teeth into, and I thought it was time to be able to live with a character at inception and travel with her to fruition and allow myself to evolve as an actress. I don’t get that opportunity in movies, where they ask me, “Will you play the distraught mom of this boy?” I say, “Sure, but I’ve played it before.” I wanted to play against-type, and while people will say, “She’s playing a no-nonsense nurse,” there’s so much more to her than that.

In order for you to be known worldwide, if you’re not getting the introduction through films, you need to be in television.” I don’t have a problem with the medium — film or television — because I’m an actor. I act. So if I’m able to get a part that helps me stretch myself and evolve as an actress? Wonderful. And if I get to be a part of something that will expand myself to a worldwide audience? Hell yeah. Sign me up.

Follow theGrio.com’s Entertainment Editor Chris Witherspoon on Twitter @WitherspoonC.