(The Root) -- It's not every day that an Oscar-winning actress stops by the neighborhood beauty salon and barbershop to compliment your roller set. But on Saturday's national day of grassroots action for the Obama campaign, Octavia Spencer of The Help brought Hollywood celebrity to North Carolina to boost the president's re-election chances, vote by vote.
As the Democratic Party prepares for its fast-approaching September convention in Charlotte, N.C., and polls show a close race between the president and presumptive Republican challenger Mitt Romney, that's not surprising. Strong African-American support made the difference in President Obama's 2008 win in North Carolina by only 14,000 votes out of more than 4 million cast; a 2012 repeat means that he must energize his base. African-American turnout could determine if the president again puts the swing state's 15 electoral votes in his column, according to a recent National Urban League study.
Weekend events in Charlotte and the Raleigh-Durham area, where actor Don Cheadle appeared at Obama for America events at local businesses, were part of the It Takes One initiative, asking for individuals to reach out to friends and neighbors and do one thing to support the campaign. In a recent phone interview with columnists, First Lady Michelle Obama said, "This election is going to be even closer than the last one, and in the end this could all come down to those few thousand votes."

More than 300 of the weekend's 4,600 nationwide events took place in North Carolina, according to the campaign.

Spencer, wearing a 2012 T-shirt under a dark blazer and a pin with the president's image on it, chatted, joked and took pictures with the 30 or so patrons and visitors at Heads Up Barber Shop in Charlotte. When someone said, "I loved you in that movie. Where's the pie?" referring to the infamous confection that caused so much drama in The Help, Spencer answered, "You don't want me to cook." But her election message was serious.

The Montgomery, Ala., native compared the neighborhood scene to the places African Americans gathered when they first won the right to vote. "We cannot forget to show up in November -- otherwise, it's going to be back to where it was in 1980, and [economic policies were based on the] trickle-down effect," she said as the men, women and children in the shop listened. "That's what Mitt Romney proposes, that the rich continue to flourish and we wait for it to trickle down to us. Now, I don't know about you, but I haven't felt that trickle yet."

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(Photo: Obama for America)