Movie Star Says Hollywood Is More Racist Than Alabama: “I’m going to be honest, I felt more racism when I first moved here than I ever had in Alabama”
Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer came clean and said Los Angeles, California is more racist than her hometown of Montgomery, Alabama. Spencer won an Oscar for her role in “The Help.” She made the comments on the podcast “WTF with Marc Maron.”
Spencer said of Alabama, “It’s a beautiful place and beautiful people. You know, I love being from there.” Maron said, “But it’s like, it’s heavy, man. Right?” Spencer responded by saying:
“I think everywhere is heavy. Everywhere has its history. You know what I mean? It’s — I think everywhere has problems. You can’t deny that Southern history is intense. What’s beautiful for me is, that stuff preceded me.
“You know, I was a child of the ’70s. You know, as you grow older and the things that you can remember.
“That wasn’t a part of my history. I learned about it. It’s not everything — anything that I experienced.
“My mother definitely, you know, taught us about the world and the realities, the harsh realities of the world and history.
“But growing up in Alabama, I’m going to be honest, I felt more racism when I first moved here than I ever, ever had in Alabama.”
She said before she came to LA she thought, “Oh, California is gonna be this free and liberal thinking place,” but like in the movie Pretty Woman she was followed when she went into a store.
She said, “It is so funny. It’s right out of ‘Pretty Woman.’
“One of the first things that you do when you move to, or at least that I did.
“You want to go to those historical places?
“You want to go to Rodeo Drive.
“You wanna go to Hollywood Boulevard.
“You know, the wax museum, all of those landmark places,”
“I remember going into a shop and being followed, like, at first, I didn’t even, I was just like so excited, like just walking around, and then I realized that I was being followed.
“It was kind of strange in that way.”
“But I guess it really is — there is a culture of profound racism in Los Angeles,” Maron said.
Why I always say alleged liberal Hollywood. "Octavia Spencer Says Hollywood is More Racist Than Alabama Where She Grew Up: There is 'Profound Racism in Los Angeles'" https://t.co/KVNPZHWq4Q via @mediaite
— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) January 19, 2023
Octavia Spencer says she experienced ‘more racism’ in LA than Alabama https://t.co/EchH94UZFi
— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 20, 2023