Janelle Monae learns math formula used by NASA
Janelle Monae can now do the complicated calculations which helped NASA officials launch the first U.S. space mission after learning the math formula for her new film Hidden Figures.
The singer-turned-actress portrays real-life mathematician Mary Jackson in the historical drama, in which she stars alongside Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Johnson and Octavia Spencer as Dorothy Vaughan, about the three African-American women who worked behind the scenes to help NASA make John Glenn the first American astronaut to orbit Earth in 1962.
The Tightrope hitmaker admits she was also good with numbers, but
her love of the arts drew her away from her studies - and working
on Hidden Figures actually allowed her to revisit her brainiac past
as she prepared for her role onscreen.
"I was actually in honors math, but with math, you have to study
that, so when I got involved in the arts, I was (a) theater
student, international thespian, in a capella choir, after school
Shakespearean classes... and I kinda got dusty, so I realized that
that was not my career path," she explained on U.S. breakfast show
Today.
"But, I had the opportunity to work with an incredible
mathematician, Mr. Rudy. We filmed in Atlanta, Georgia and I wanted
to learn the elliptical equation, that was one of the equations
that Katherine and all of the mathematicians there used to help get
our astronauts into space, so I did challenge myself to do
that."
Janelle recently paid tribute to Glenn at the New York premiere of
Hidden Figures, which was held days after his passing on 8 December
(16), at the age of 95.
Hailing him as a "hero" for trusting Jackson, Johnson and Vaughan
with his life, the star added to The Associated Press, "John Glenn
was always on the right side of history. During a time when these
women, because of their gender and the color of their skin, were
often times treated like second-class citizens, he extended his
hand out, and he trusted women, and women of color, with his
life."