Octavia Spencer Reprises The Help Role on SNL and Delivers Impressions of Oprah Winfrey and Viola Davis

The actress made her hosting debut on the NBC show Saturday

By Corinne Heller Mar 05, 2017 5:39 PMTags

Hope you didn't watch Saturday Night Live while eating a pre-night snack...

Octavia Spencer, who recently starred in the Oscar-nominated film Hidden Figures, made her hosting debut on the NBC show, first appearing in the cold open, a Forrest Gump parody in which she reprised her role as Minny Jackson from The Help, which had earned her an Oscar.

The character is one of several who sits on a bench in Alabama and chats with U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, played by SNL cast member Kate McKinnon.

 

photos
Oscars 2017: Best Dressed Women

She asks him if he is "the one Corette Scott King wrote that letter about," to which he replies, "Oh wow, well that was 40 years ago. You still remember that?"

She then offers him a pie she baked especially for him.

"Hey," he says. "Is this what I think it is?"

"It is," she says, and leaves.

"Mmm, my favorite!" he says, taking a bite of a slice.

During the episode, Spencer also took part in a sketch in which she and SNL stars Melissa Villaseñor, Alex Moffat, Kenan Thompson did impressions of famous people doing voice-overs for a fictional animated film Zoo-opolis, whose title parodies Disney's Zootopia.

Spencer did her best Oprah Winfrey and Viola DavisJudy Dench and Jodie Foster, who recently won her first Oscar for Fences. Villaseñor, who is known for her celebrity impressions, mimicked Jennifer LopezKristen WiigKathy GriffinJulia Louis-DreyfusOwen Wilson and McKinnon. Thompson impersonated Tracy Morgan and Moffat took a crack at Hugh Grant and Bill Walton.

(E! and NBC are part of the NBCUniversal family.)