The
Help
Movie Quotes: Pure Acting Heaven
(Total Quotes: 94)
| The Help movie quotes are deeply touching and pure acting heaven. This adaptation has managed successfully to be a crowd pleasing movie as well as intellectually engaging and emotionally satisfying drama providing a heavily laced social uplift. Although the story is missing some of the darker elements of the novel and feels slightly simplistic at times, the powerful performances in this movie are so spectacular that the audience are left powerless in feeling the triumphs and sorrows of the people on screen. Simply put The Help is a wonderful, evocative reflection of history.
Written by:
Tate Taylor (screenplay)
Kathryn Stockett (novel)
Starring:
Emma Stone - Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan
Viola Davis - Aibileen Clark
Bryce Dallas Howard - Hilly Holbrook
Octavia Spencer - Minny Jackson
Jessica Chastain - Celia Foote
Ahna O'Reilly - Elizabeth Leefolt
Allison Janney - Charlotte Phelan
Anna Camp - Jolene French
Eleanor Henry - Mae Mobley
Emma Henry - Mae Mobley
Chris Lowell - Stuart Whitworth
Cicely Tyson - Constantine Jefferson
Mike Vogel - Johnny Foote
Sissy Spacek - Mrs. Walters
Brian Kerwin - Robert Phelan
Wes Chatham - Carlton Phelan
Aunjanue Ellis - Yule Mae Davis
The
Help
Movie Quotes Part 1 | 2 | 3
[first lines]Aibileen Clark: I was born nineteen eleven, Chickasaw county, Piedmont Plantation.
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: And did you know as a girl growing up, that one day you'd be a maid?
Aibileen Clark: Yes, ma'am. I did.
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: And you knew that, because?
Aibileen Clark: My mama was a maid. My grandmama was a house slave.
[referring to Aibileen being a maid]
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Do you ever dream of being somethin' else?
[Aibileen nods her head to confirm yes]
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: What does it feel like to raise a white child, when you're own child's at home being looked after by somebody else?
Aibileen Clark: It feel...
[she doesn't finish her words but sadly looks over at the graduation photo of her son]
Aibileen Clark: [voice over] I done raise seventeen kids in my life. Looking after white babies, that's what I do. I know how to get them babies asleeps, start crying and going to toilet bowl before their mamma's even get out of bed in the mornin'. Babies are like fattie. They like big fat ladies too, that I know.
Aibileen Clark: [voice over] I work for the Leefolt's from eight to four, six days a week. I make ninety five cent an hour. That come to a hundred eighty two dollar every month. I do all the cooking, cleaning, washing, ironing and grocery shopping. But mostly, I take care of baby girl and lord I worry she gonna be fat. Ain't gonna be no beauty queen either.
Aibileen Clark: [voice over] Miss Leefolt still don't baby girl up but once a day. Birthin' blues got hold of Miss Leefolt pretty hard. I didn't seen her happy plenty of times, once babies start havin' their own babies. And the young white ladies of Jackson, oh lord, was they havin' babies! But not Miss Skeeter, no man and no babies.
[at her interview at a newspapers office, after reading her impressive resume]
Mr. Blackly: Damn, girl! Don't you have fun?
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Is that important?
Mr. Blackly: Do you have any references?
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Yes.
[she gets a letter from her bag and gives it to him]
Mr. Blackly: Well! This...this is a rejection letter.
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Uh...Uh...not exactly. See uh...Miss Stein...
Mr. Blackly: Stein?
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Elain Stein, from Harper & Row Publishing in New York.
Mr. Blackly: Oh, lord!
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: I'm gonna be a serious writer, Mr. Blackly. But, I applied for a job with Mrs. Stein...
Mr. Blackly: She said, no!
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Well, until I gain some experience. See...
[referring to her letter]
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: It says right there. 'Great potential. Gain some experience and please apply again.'
Mr. Blackly: Oh, Christ! I guess you'll do.
Mr. Blackly: Do you clean?
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: I'm sorry, clean?
Mr. Blackly: Clean! Grab that basket.
[Skeeter comes over to help him grab the basket full of letters]
Mr. Blackly: Miss Myrna has gone shit house crazy on us. She dropped hairspray or somethin'. I want you to read her past columns. And read these letters and you answer 'em just like she would. Nobody is gonna know the damn difference. You know who Miss Myrna is?
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: I read her articles all the time.
Mr. Blackly: Articles? Miss Phelan, it's a cleaning advice column. Eight bucks a week, copy is due on Thursday.
Aibileen Clark: [voice over] Miss Hilly was the first of the babies to have a baby. And it must have come out of her like the eleventh commandment, cause once Miss Hilly had the baby, every girl at the bridge table had to have one too.
Minny Jackson: Here, let me help you. Take that off. It's ninety eight degrees out there.
[Minny helps Mrs. Walters takes off coat]
Mrs. Walters: Is it?
Minny Jackson: Yes, ma'am.
Mrs. Walters: Well, let's put my coat on then!
[she puts the coast Minny has just taken off her back on]
Aibileen Clark: [voice over] Once Mrs. Walters arteries went hard, Miss Hilly moved her into her house and fired the maid she had to make room for Minny too. See Minny about the best cook in Mississippi and Miss Hilly wanted her. I lost my own boy, Treelore, four years ago. After that I just didn't wanna live no more. It took God and Minny to get me through it. Minny my best friend. An old lady like me is lucky to have her.
Aibileen Clark: [voice over] After my boy died, a bitter seed was planted inside of me. And I just didn't feel so accepting anymore.
[referring to Hilly]
Minny Jackson: Forgive me lord, but I'm gonna have to kill that woman, Aibileen. Now she gone to puttin' pencil marks on the toilet paper.
[Aibileen laughs]
Aibileen Clark: Did she?
Minny Jackson: Mmhmm. But I carry paper in from my own damn house. That fool don't know!
[they both laugh]
Aibileen Clark: Miss Leefolt fork out so much hairspray on her hair, I'm afraid she's gonna blow us all up if she lights her cigarette.
Minny Jackson: And you know she will!
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: I got a job today. At the Jackson Journal.
Hilly Holbrook: They'd be a fool not to hire you.
[Jolene holds up her glass of drink as if to make a toast]
Jolene French: To Skeeter and her job.
[everyone else hold up their glass of drink]
Jolene French: Last job till marriage.
Elizabeth Leefolt: My Aibileen? Why can you just get Constantine to help?
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Constantine quit us.
Hilly Holbrook: Oh, my gosh! Skeeter, I'm so sorry!
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Anyway, I just um...I don't really know how to answer these letters.
Elizabeth Leefolt: Well...uh...um...I mean, as long as it doesn't interfere with her work. I don't see why not.
[referring to Hilly refusing to the bathroom]
Elizabeth Leefolt: Just go use mine and Raleigh's.
Hilly Holbrook: If Aibileen uses the guest bath, I'm sure she uses yours too.
Elizabeth Leefolt: She does not!
Hilly Holbrook: Wouldn't you rather them take their business outside?
[Skeeter sees Aibileen can hear their conversation and she tries to change the subject]
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Have you all seen the over of Life this week? Jackie's never looked more regal.
[Hilly ignores Skeeter and continues the same conversation]
Hilly Holbrook: Tell Raleigh, every penny he spends on a coloreds bathroom, he'll get back in spades when you all sell. It's just plain dangerous. They carry different diseases than we do.
[Aibileen can hear her through the next room]
Hilly Holbrook: That's why I drive to the Home House Sanitation Initiative.
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: The what?
Hilly Holbrook: A disease preventative pill that requires every white home to have a separate bathroom for the colored help. It's been endorsed by the White Citizens Council.
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Maybe we should just build you a bathroom outside, Hilly.
Hilly Holbrook: You ought not to joke about the colored situation. I'll do whatever it takes to protect our children.
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Do you think you'd be willing to help me with those Miss Myrna letters?
Aibileen Clark: Miss Myrna get it wrong a lot of times, it'd be good to get it right.
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Thank you, Aibileen. All that talk in there today, Hilly's talk? I'm sorry you had to hear that.
[referring to her wig]
Charlotte Phelan: Is this a little too young?
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: That's a little too everything!
[to Skeeter]
Charlotte Phelan: Eugenia, your eggs are dying! Would it kill you to go on a date?
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: I got a job today.
Charlotte Phelan: Where?
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Writin' for the Jackson Journal.
Charlotte Phelan: Great. You can write my obituary; Charlotte Phelan. Dead. Her daughter still single!
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Mother, would it be really so bad if I never had a husband?
Charlotte Phelan: Skeeter!
Charlotte Phelan: I read the other day about how some girls get un...unbalanced. Start
thinking these... unnatural thoughts. Are you..? Do you uh...find men
attractive? Are you havin' unnatural thoughts about girls or women?Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Oh, my God!
Charlotte Phelan: Because this article says there's a cure. A special root tea!
[angry Skeeter gets and walks away]
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Mother, I wanna be with girls as much as you wanna be with Jameso!
Charlotte Phelan: Eugenia!
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Unless of course you do!
[during dinner after she tells the new maid that she's allergic to almonds]
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: You know, last time I had an almond, I stopped likin' men.
Rebecca: Oh, my lord!
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Oh no! Rebecca, it's fine. There's a special root tea for that now.
Charlotte Phelan: You've pushed it, young lady!
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Daddy, what happened to Constantine?
Robert Phelan: Uh...well, Constantine went to live in Chicago with her family. People move on Skeeter. But I do wish that she'd stayed down here with us.
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: I don't believe you. She would have written and told me.
[everyone at the table goes quite and Skeeter turns to her mother]
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Did you fire her?
Charlotte Phelan: We were just a job to her, honey. With them it's all about money. Now you'll understand that once you have hired help of your own.
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: She raised me!
Charlotte Phelan: She did not!
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: She worked here for twenty nine years!
Charlotte Phelan: It was a colored thing and I put it behind me.
[Skeeter has a flash back memory of Constantine]
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: I just couldn't tell mama I didn't get asked to the dance.
Constantine Jefferson: It's alright. Some things you just got to keep to ourselves, right?
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: All the boys say I'm ugly. Mama was third runner up in Miss South Carolina and I just...
Constantine Jefferson: Oh, you quit feelin' sorry for yourself. Now, that's ugly. Ugly is somethin' that grows up inside you. It's mean and hurtin', like them boys. Now, you're not one of them, is you?
[Skeeter shakes her head]
Constantine Jefferson: I didn't think so, honey.
[Skeeter has a flash back memory of Constantine]
Constantine Jefferson: Everyday...everyday you're not dead in the ground and you wake up in the mornin', you gonna have to make some decisions. Gotta ask yourself this question; am I gonna believe all them bad things them fools said about me today? You hear me? Am I gonna believe all them bad things them fools say about me today? Alright?
[Skeeter nods her head in understanding]
Constantine Jefferson: As for your mama, she didn't pick her life. It picked her. But you, you gonna do something big with yours. You wait and see.
[on the telephone]
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: I'd like to write something from the point of view of the help. These colored women raise white children, and in twenty years those children become the boss. We love them and they love us, but they can't even use the toilets in our houses. Don't you find that ironic, Miss Stein?
Elain Stein: I'm listening.
Elain Stein: Look, no maid in her right mind is ever gonna tell you the truth. That's a hell of a risk to take in a place like Jackson Mississippi.
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: I already have the maid.
Elain Stein: Really? A Negro maid has already agreed to speak with you?
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Yes, ma'am.
Elain Stein: Well, I guess I can read what you come up with. The Biz could use a little rattler.
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Thank you, Miss Stein!
Elain Stein: Hey, hey, hey! All I'm sayin' is that I'll let you know if it's even worth pursuing. And for God's sake, your a twenty three year old educated woman! Go get yourself and apartment!
[reading one the letters to Aibileen]
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Dear Miss Myrna, when I'm chopping onions how do I keep tears out of my eyes?
Aibileen Clark: Shoot! That's easy. You tell to hold a match stick between her teeth.
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: It is lit?
Aibileen Clark: No, ma'am.
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: I wanna interview you about what it's like to work as a maid. I'd like to do a book of interviews about working for white families. I can then show what it's like to work, for say, Elizabeth.
Aibileen Clark: You know what Miss Leefolt would do to me if she knew I was tellin' stories on her?
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Well, I was thinkin' that we wouldn't have to tell her. The other maids would have to keep it a secret too.
Aibileen Clark: Other maids?
Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan: Well, I was...I was hopin' to get four or five. To show what's really like in Jackson.
[Minny desperate to use the toilet looks out the window at the outside toilet but there's a heavy storm]
Minny Jackson: Uh...Miss Hilly?
Hilly Holbrook: Mmhmm?
Minny Jackson: Never mind.
Mrs. Walters: You go on ahead and use the inside bath, Minny. It's alright.
Hilly Holbrook: Oh, for cryin' out loud! It's just a little rain! She can go on up and get an umbrella from the study.
Mrs. Walters: I believe she was working for me before you dragged us both here. Daddy ruined you.
[Hilly suspects Minny is using the toilet inside the house and calls through the toilet door]
Hilly Holbrook: Minny are you in there?
Minny Jackson: Yes, ma'am.
Hilly Holbrook: And just what are you doin''?
[Minny deliberately flushes the toilet and Hilly hears this through the door]
Hilly Holbrook: [shouting] Ooh! The toilet! You are fired Minny Jackson!
[referring to the heavy storms in Jackson]
Aibileen Clark: [voice over] Eighteen people died in Jackson that day. Ten white and eight black. God don't mind to pay to color once he decide to set a tornado loose.
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Total
Quotes: 94
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