Octavia Spencer wants to be a film producer.

Octavia Spencer

Octavia Spencer

The Oscar-winning actress likes the "puzzle-solving" element of being a producer and is seeking out projects where she can take on that role.

She said: "I love looking for material. I call my agents, just about every other week, when I read something, to find out if the rights have been taken. I like doing puzzles, and to me, the job of a producer is a person who's puzzle-solving. You're bringing pieces together that should be congruent. I'm enjoying seeking those projects out.

"I just produced a film, called Small Town Crime, that's going to SXSW. I play John Hawkes' sister, and it's starring John Hawkes, Anthony Anderson and Robert Forster. I am producing Raven, which is about the Jonestown Massacre, with Vince Gilligan, and Michelle MacLaren is directing it. And I am producing and starring in the Madam C.J. Walker story. There are also a few more things that I've optioned and that I'm writing, with a co-writer. What I'm really having fun doing is finding material, finding new ways to tell stories, and finding people who haven't gotten their shot."

And Octavia also enjoys writing too and used it to pass the time when she was out of work as an actress.

She added to Collider: "It's weird because I was an English major at Auburn [University] and one thing that my mom drummed in us was, 'Idle hands are the devil's workshop.'

"So, when things weren't happening for me, as an actor, that's when I spent the majority of my time writing. I don't have any time, these days, to write. It feels really weird when I don't. I actually haven't been writing as much. I get a different type of gratification out of that because it's my own work. It's what I do for my own sanity. It's a very different feeling."


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