Octavia Spencer Says She’s ‘Felt Extra Racism’ in L.A. Than Again Dwelling in Alabama: ‘I Was an Anomaly’
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Octavia Spencer has realized that racism exists irrespective of the place you reside.
The Academy Award winner, 52, admitted that she “felt more racism when I first moved” to Los Angeles than she ever did in her southern hometown of Montgomery, Alabama, as she appeared on an episode of the WTF with Marc Maron podcast launched final week.
“I feel all over the place is heavy. In every single place has its historical past,” Spencer defined. “I feel all over the place has issues.”
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She continued: “You possibly can’t deny that Southern historical past is intense. It’s. However what’s lovely for me is that stuff preceded me. I used to be a baby of the ’70s … As you get older and the issues that you may bear in mind, that wasn’t part of my historical past. I realized about it. It isn’t something that I skilled.”
Spencer stated that when she first moved to L.A. within the ’90s, she anticipated the town to be a “free and liberal-thinking place,” however throughout a purchasing journey on Rodeo Drive, folks made her really feel like she “was an anomaly.”
“It’s so humorous. It is proper out of Pretty Woman,” she stated. “One of many first issues that you simply do if you transfer to [L.A.], or a minimum of that I did, is you wanna go to these historic locations … all of these landmark locations.
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“I bear in mind going into a store and being adopted. At first … I used to be identical to so excited, like simply strolling round, after which I spotted that I used to be being adopted. It was simply sort of unusual in that method,” Spencer added.
The Truth Be Told star stated that “the humorous factor is, after getting over that preliminary [culture shock], I’ve not likely essentially skilled” it once more, including: “However it was obviously apparent.”
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Spencer stated she has “a house there now” in Alabama, the place she spends “weeks at a time,” noting the significance of “spending high quality time with household.”
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After shopping for a Spanish-style home within the Toluca Lake neighborhood of L.A. in 2013, she claimed to Ellen DeGeneres that the house is haunted by a ghost whom she calls her “protector,” including: “I like him, as a result of he sort of kinds out the dangerous folks that should not be there. He runs them out.”