Octavia Spencer talks 'Fruitvale Station' and how many times she's played a nurse

It resonated with me on a personal level, but I almost didn't take the part. I was sent the script, and some of the footage from the cellphone videos , and I took the shortcut of watching the footage. I was angry, hurt, and at the time the Trayvon Martin incident had just occurred, and I thought anger was not the right emotion for this subject matter, and I passed. And my agent said, "Read the script. Anger is not the way Ryan approached the subject." He presented a balanced look at the main character], and that is what I wanted to be a part of. Ryan chose not to view people from anger. This movie could have been an indictment of our judicial system, but that would be painting everyone with a general brush.

We had a very limited budget, under $1 million, and while filming we lost a great deal of money, and I didn't want Ryan's vision compromised. I knew a lot of people with deep pockets and made calls, and I kicked in some of my own money. It's what I've always wanted to do, it was just a natural progression. I wanted to be a producer originally, and had been a producer in a performer's body. I like putting people together, and producing is puzzle-solving.

There are only a few ways women of color are viewed: the nurturer, the caregiver, the wise sage. And I fit the nurturer-caregiver.

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I've always been attracted to the film and TV industries. I wanted to act and thought you could act and produce. My mother, being the practical woman she was, when I said I wanted to be an actress, she said maybe not that. It was my animated personality that directors were drawn to , and I was asked to audition for things.

Once I realized I was going to pursue a career in this industry, there was nothing that made me think I couldn't make a living at it.

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There's not a plethora of roles for women of color, and I'm basically a character actress. A lot were things I've played before -- like moms -- and some things I haven't played before, but were not fleshed out. If it's too much like something I've recently played, I turned it down. I don't care about the size of the role, it's the impact the role has in the script.

It was the first film that [Cody] directed and wrote, and I liked it because we don't have many women behind the scenes. I play a bar singer in a Vegas bar, and Julianne Hough is a young girl who grew up in a religious environment. She lost her faith, and comes to Vegas to explore what she has been denied in her previous life.