Octavia Spencer plans to host a free Black Panther screening for low-income families in Mississippi
Octavia Spencer is keeping up her own tradition of helping underserved communities see important new films. In early 2017, the Oscar nominee bought out a Hidden Figures screening in Los Angeles and invited families who couldn’t afford to purchase tickets for the film about the pioneering black female mathematicians involved in NASA’s earliest efforts. Now Spencer, who’s up for Best Supporting Actress for The Shape Of Water, has announced plans to buy out a screening of Black Panther in Mississippi this month.
Spencer posted the news on Instagram, telling fans that she wants to snap up all those tickets “to ensure that all our brown children can see themselves as a superhero.” Black Panther isn’t the first film about a black superhero, or even the first Marvel film about a black superhero, but the film is making history in other ways. Not only is Ryan Coogler the first black man to direct a major superhero film, but the cast—including Chadwick Boseman, Lupita Nyong’o, Daniel Kaluuya, Angela Bassett, Michael B. Jordan, and Danai Gurira–and crew are predominantly black. And Black Panther’s first standalone film is already breaking pre-sales records, which could make it a little harder for Spencer to carry out her plan, but is overall a heartening sign.