Dinner and movie to feature 'To Kill a Mockingbird' actress

The girl and tomboy Scout swings into our hearts on a rope.

In the 1962 movie version of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” we’re introduced to 6-year-old Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, clad in denim overalls, as she zooms onto the screen via a tree rope swing. She eagerly greets Mr. Cunningham, a man who owes her father, lawyer Atticus Finch, for legal services, and brings him hickory nuts as payment because it’s all he can afford.

Too innocent to understand that Mr. Cunningham probably just wants to drop his settlement off without encountering anyone, Scout runs to get her father. It’s anything but an awkward moment, however, because Scout treats her visitor with the tender kindness, respect and grace any human being deserves.

Mary Badham, who played Scout in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” as a 9-year-old didn’t understand concepts in the story such as racism and injustice, but she did grasp — and embrace for life — the power of human kindness. More than 50 years later, when she speaks to audiences around the country, Badham combines that childlike wonder with an adult’s understanding of the complexities in “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

Badham is a passionate ambassador for “To Kill a Mockingbird,” both the film and the novel. She frequently appears in public to share her on-the-set “Mockingbird” memories, and to promote reading (of any book) and the film’s/novel’s message of tolerance.
On Jan. 5, she’ll visit Ventura County for the debut of the Oxnard Performing Arts Center’s “Dinner and a Movie” series. The event will include a screening of “To Kill a Mockingbird” as well as a Q&A with Badham. 

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(Badham is making a return trip to Ventura County. In 2010, the 50th anniversary year of the publication of Lee’s novel, she participated in a Q&A and film screening at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa.) 

During a phone interview from her Virginia home, where she was spending holiday time with her grandchildren, Badham said: “To Kill a Mockingbird” is “almost biblical. It has all the lessons in life we don’t seem to have learned yet.” Those lessons, she said, include “giving to others, helping others, being open, and not judging someone by how they look or what color their skin is.”

‘Mockingbird’ on the page

“To Kill a Mockingbird,” the novel, is a staple of classroom reading and was No. 5 on Modern Library’s Reader’s List of the 100 best novels published since 1900. 

It’s also earned a more dubious honor. According to the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, “To Kill a Mockingbird” was No. 21 on its list of the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books from 2000 to 2009.

Reasons cited include use of the word "nigger" and other racial slurs, and adult themes such as rape and incest.

As recently as October, a school board in Biloxi, Mississippi, removed “To Kill a Mockingbird” from an eighth-grade reading list after receiving complaints that language in the book “makes people uncomfortable.” A public outcry ensued, and the book was returned to the reading list, but students need a parent’s permission to study it.

Badham hopes people who read “Mockingbird” now, or see the film, will “try to look at the story historically. Look at the social and racial structure back then, which was totally different from what it was today, and learn from it.” 

Badham said she didn’t actually read “To Kill a Mockingbird” until many years after she filmed the movie, when she was married, and a professor from a local college asked her to speak to his English literature class.

“When he asked me what my favorite chapter was, he realized from the look on my face that I hadn’t read the book,” Badham said, laughing. 

The book “was a revelation,” she said. “There were characters I had no clue about, and they gave me a more in-depth understanding of what was going on.” 

Badham met Harper Lee, who died in 2016, several times over the years, and like others close to the reclusive author called her “Miss Nelle.” (Her full name was Nelle Harper Lee.)

In 2015, Badham fielded questions from media about the release of Lee’s controversial novel “Go Set a Watchman,” which was written before “To Kill a Mockingbird” and features the same characters, but 20 years later. “Watchman” surprised many readers because in this prequel/sequel, their hero Atticus Finch, champion of justice in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” appears to hold racist views and attends a Ku Klux Klan meeting. 

Badham defends “Go Set a Watchman.” “The book is very accurate to the times,” said Badham, who grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. “You can’t impose today’s knowledge on what was going on then. We were tied to strict racial rules, and if you broke those rules, you paid dearly, sometimes with your life. Atticus knew that. Knowing who your enemy is, you have to communicate with them, and understand where they are coming from.”

‘Mockingbird’ on the screen

“To Kill a Mockingbird” is No. 2 on the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 most inspiring films of all time; No. 1 on its list of the Top 10 courtroom dramas; No. 25 on its list of the 100 greatest films of all time.

Badham, an unknown actress when selected to play Scout, received a best supporting actress Oscar nomination for the role. 

She appeared in a few TV shows and films after “Mockingbird,” but mainly retired from showbiz. “I’m not of that world,” she said. 

The film’s Oscars honors include Peck for best actor; Horton Foote for writing; and Alexander Golitzen, Henry Bumstead and Oliver Emert for art direction. It was also nominated for best picture (“Lawrence of Arabia” won), cinematography, directing and music score.

Badham said she cries when she watches “To Kill a Mockingbird” — which isn’t often because she misses the actors in it who were like family to her but have since died. Badham had an especially close relationship with Gregory Peck, her on-screen dad. He died in 2003.

Badham said their on-screen connection was real off-camera, as well.

“That same gentle guidance that you see on film, he shared with me growing up,” she said. 

In 2012, Badham was invited to a screening of “To Kill a Mockingbird” at the White House to celebrate the film’s 50th anniversary, where she met President Barack Obama, who called the movie “a real milestone in American culture.” 

Badham said she hopes the movie will never be remade.

“It would be ruined,” she said. “I think they (filmmakers) would make it too vivid.” The 1962 film, she said, relied on “the basic decency of the people who made the film; they were not going to do gratuitous violence or anything else. Today, filmmakers want every drop of blood in a scene, which may sell tickets, but it misses the point.”

In her years devoted to “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Badham has been all over the U.S. “Unfortunately, bigotry and racism haven’t gone anywhere,” she said. “As I’ve traveled around this country, I knew it was there, lurking under the surface, and it exploded in Charlottesville, just down the road” (referring to the white supremacist violence that broke out in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August).

Have we learned anything since the publication of “To Kill a Mockingbird”?

“That’s my question exactly,” Badham said. “We have to really think about what we want to be as a country and what we want to stand for.”

Dinner and a Movie: ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’

What: The Oxnard Performing Arts Center will kick off its new “Dinner and a Movie” series Jan. 5 with a screening of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” featuring a guest appearance by Mary Badham, who played Scout in the film, and a Southern barbecue meal catered by Bandits’ Grill & Bar.
When: Dinner and discussion at 7 p.m., followed by film screening at 8 p.m. Jan. 5
Where: 800 Hobson Way, Oxnard.
Tickets: $22.50-$25, available at 486-2424 or www.oxnardperformingarts.com.