Library Screens Oscar-Winning Film 'The Help' for Free

See Octavia Spencer's Academy Award-winning performance for free Tuesday evening at the .

The movie, The Help, will be screened from 7-9:30 p.m. as part of the library's Hollywood film series. The library has a license to show first-run films.

Seating is limited, so plan to arrive early.

Spencer's Oscar-winning role in The Help changed her life, even before she won the statuette, the actress said backstage at the Hollywood & Highland Center.

Steven Spielberg could have hired "any zaftig actress with acting chops," Spencer said, but he gave her the chance to portray Minny, a maid and nanny in 1960s Mississippi.

She called her relationship with the film's story a "love affair" and the Oscar win both "fantastic" and "humbling.

"I am a beneficiary of all ... that (those characters in The Help) reaped," she said. "I am humble because I get to stand here and accept this award and I haven't really done anything."

Spencer also praised her fellow actors and the process.

"We just left our egos at the door and worked together as one beautiful unit," she said.

She praised her fellow actors, including Viola Davis, who was nominated for best actress.

"To be a part of that and just sort of dissolve into the world that we were representing, it's our job, but it was rare that we did it without judgment," she said.

She also said she could also appreciate the film's comic moments.

"I don't think there's anything light-hearted about the civil rights moment," Spencer said, but she added that the opportunity to laugh at points in the film made the story more accessible.

Asked how she felt about the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' membership demographic of largely white men, Spencer laughed, "I can't tell the Academy what to do. They just gave me an Oscar."

As for the overwhelming burst of applause for her win, Spencer said she couldn't explain it.

"Maybe it was that they responded to the message of The Help. I honestly don't know," she said.

Someone in the room called her a newcomer and Spencer laughed, "15 years and I'm still a newcomer."

But she added, "I hope that I can be, in some way, a beacon of hope, especially because I am not the typical Hollywood type."

And Spencer said she wants to do more than act.

"I want to be a producer. I want to be an activist. I want to be proactive in bringing about work for men, women, boys, girls, for everyone. ... I want to have a presence both behind the scenes and in front of the camera."

For now though, "I'm going to enjoy this moment because it's happened and ... it may never happen again."

-- City News Service contributed to this report.