Hidden Figures

When Taraji P. Henson signed on for the lead role she met with Katherine Johnson, who was 98 years old, to discuss the character she was about to portray. Henson learned that Johnson had graduated from high school at age 14 and from college at age 18 and was still as lucid as anyone years younger. After the film was screened for Johnson, she expressed her genuine approval of Henson's portrayal but wondered why anybody would want to make a film about her life.

The drama of John Glenn's malfunctioning heat shield was not followed in real time by the U.S. public as depicted to dramatic effect in the film. During the Mercury program, NASA was acutely aware of the public relations importance of the space program, and Mission Control staff were focused on dealing with the fault and not on feeding news releases promptly to the media while the problem was actively being resolved. Despite the 3-orbit / 7-orbit confusion, most if not all civilian Americans were unaware of the malfunction until long after Glenn had safely splashed down.