In the film, the three women are depicted as best friends, but in actuality, they weren't that close. It's true that Dorothy Vaughan acted as Jackson and Johnson's supervisor, but the scenes showcasing their personal relationship are fictional. As much as we'd love to imagine it, chances are that they never carpooled, Jackson and Vaughan didn't convince Johnson to date Colonel Jim Johnson, nor did they help her get ready for the wedding.
Despite what you see in the movie, their work achievements didn't happen at the same time, either. Not only was there a 10- to 12-year age difference between Vaughan and the other two women, but Vaughan became the acing head of the West Area Computers in 1949 (five years before Katherine began working there), Jackson became an engineer in 1958, and John Glenn's orbit that Johnson calculated for occurred in 1961.
