Janelle Monae moved to tears reading Hidden Figures script

Singer/actress Janelle Monae cried after reading the script to upcoming film Hidden Figures because she was moved by the black women who made history at NASA.
The Tightrope star is making her feature film debut in the movie, based on the true story of three African-American women who helped astronaut John Glenn become the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962.
And Janelle told the Associated Press that she is honoured to play the role of NASA mathematician Mary Jackson, but even more thrilled that she gets to tell their little-known story to the world.
“It is so important, that we as women, African-American women, tell our stories,” Janelle said. “These three women opened doors for us and literally helped change the world.
“I cried because I had never heard of Katherine Johnson or Dorothy Vaughan or Mary Jackson. But I know these women and their struggles. I am Mary. I am so honoured to play her. This film is so important because it shows black people and black women in a different light.”
Janelle claims the trio also had an integral part in launching the famed Apollo 13, but their names weren’t even mentioned in Ron Howard’s 1995 big screen adaptation, noting even further that their story needs to be told on a larger scale.
“These women were pioneers,” she explained. “They won and even more important, America won. And that’s huge. Without them we might still be trying to figure out how to get a shuttle into space.”
The scientific trio is rounded out by Taraji P. Henson and Octavia Spencer, while Kirsten Dunst and Kevin Costner also star in the movie.
The film will be directed by Ted Melfi and based on Margot Lee Shetterly’s book, Hidden Figures: The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race, which is set to be published in September (16).
Shetterly’s father worked with the trio of NASA employees, and often told Margot stories about them. Johnson, now 97, is the only living member and received a Presidential Medal Of Freedom from U.S. President Barack Obama last year (15).
Hidden Figures is due to hit cinemas in January (17).