Driving Miss Daisy African American housemaid named Idella (Esther Rolle). When Miss Daisy drives her 1946 Chrysler Windsor into her neighbor's yard, her forty-year-old son Boolie (Dan Aykroyd) buys her a 1949 Hudson Commodore and hires Hoke Colburn (Morgan Freeman), an African American chauffeur. Miss Daisy at first refuses to let anyone else drive her, but gradually gives in. As Miss Daisy and Hoke spend time together, she gains appreciation for his many skills. After Idella dies in 1962, rather than hire a new maid, Miss Daisy decides to care for her own house and have Hoke do the cooking and the driving.
Spike Lee a budget of $175,000, he shot the film in two weeks. When the film was released in 1986, it grossed over $7,000,000 at the U.S. box office. Lee's 1989 film "Do the Right Thing" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1989. Many people, including Hollywood's Kim Basinger, believed that "Do the Right Thing" also deserved a Best Picture nomination. "Driving Miss Daisy" won Best Picture that year. Lee said in an April 7, 2006, interview with "New York" magazine that the other film's success, which he thought was based on safe stereotypes, hurt him more