Don't Mess With Taraji P. Henson: Actress Shines in New Hidden Figures

Taraji P. Henson is out of this world.

in the upcoming real-life drama, Henson playsKatherine Johnson, an African-American scientist who helped NASA win the Space Race against the Soviet Union in the 1960s.

Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe co-star as fellow mathematicians who were instrumental in providing the complicated computations that helped John Glennbecome the first American astronaut to orbit the earth.

In a new clip released earlier today by 20th Century Fox, we see Henson talking with her future husband (Moonlight and House of Cards' Mahershala Ali).

Levantine Films

When he suggests that women may not have what it takes to work for NASA, Henson shuts him down in the most perfect way.

"I will have you know, I was the first negro, female student at West Virginia University graduate school," she says. "On any given day, I analyze the velometer levels for air displacement, friction, and velocity and compute over 10,000 calculations by hand. So, yes, they let women do some things at NASA, Mr. Johnson, and it's not because we wear skirts—it's because we wear glasses."

Directed by Theodore Melfi, the cast of the Oscar-buzzy film also includes Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons andGlen Powell.