As part of the footage shown, we were introduced to the three headstrong, intelligent and talented women at the heart of Ted Melfi’s historical drama: Johnson; division supervisor Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer); and aerospace engineer Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae).
They are big personalities, who made huge contributions to our space program during the race our country held with Russian at the time of the Cold War.
Explaining that she needed “a departure from Cookie,” her over-the-top Empire character, Taraji P. Henson plays actual NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, who was part of the elite team that helped launch John Glenn on his primary orbit around our planet and, more important, bring him back home.