Octavia Spencer: Oscar hasn't changed my life

Octavia Spencer doesn’t feel there are enough movie roles for black women in Hollywood.

The 44-year-old actress won an Academy Award in 2012 after starring as maid Minny Jackson in hit movie The Help. But Octavia reveals despite winning the prestigious prize, the amount of work she is being offered hasn’t changed.

“Life is exactly the same,” Octavia asked when the Daily Beast website quizzed her on how her life altered after taking home the Academy Award.

“I have to live a very small life in terms of what people think 'Hollywood' is - the roles I'm being offered in film are too small to sink your teeth into.”

And Octavia insists the colour of her skin is the sole reason she isn’t getting the roles she wants.

“I'm not jetting across the world,” she added.

“There are so few roles out there and even if it is a film that could be led by a black actress, how many times is that film going to get funded' Let's just be real.”

However Octavia acknowledges that other racial minorities are also struggling in Hollywood, and if you’re not an A-list star films can be hard to get off the ground.

“It's not just black people,” she continued. “It's Asians, it's Hispanic people - if you're not Salma Hayek. It's hard to get films funded, it's a business thing and you have to change the mindset of people around here.”

Octavia can soon be seen starring in the Steven Spielberg directed television series Red Band Society, in which she plays a nurse at a paediatric ward.