Taraji P. Henson was just as captivated by the story of Hidden Figures as most moviegoers.
The actress talked about the Academy Award-nominated film while hitting the red carpet at the 2017 Oscars, including why reading the script made her so emotional
"When Ted Melfi, our director, sent me the script, I read it and I immediately got upset because I felt a dream had been stolen from me," Taraji told E! News' Ryan Seacrest. "I don't even care how much I was getting paid. It didn't matter. It became a passion project for me."
She added, "Projects like this don't come along often. You know you have something special by page 10. I didn't know these women existed. I grew up in a time where math and science was for boys, so I chose the seats in the back of the classroom when it came to math and science because that was the understanding."
The biographical drama tells the story of three African-American mathematicians (played by Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae) working at NASA during the Space Race.
Henson also revealed that the women's journeys moved her so much, that she might have had NASA-related aspirations had she known the existed. "I felt like I had been robbed of a dream," Taraji explained, later teasing, "If I knew about these women I probably still would be an actress, but I'm just saying."
Henson continued, "What resonated for me about the women, we know about the obstacles that were stacked up against. They never complained. That to me is a selfless hero. I'm not doing it for the accolades... I'm doing it because I love what I do. These women changed the course of history because they didn't let these obstacles get in the way and they focused on solutions."
So well said!