Viola Davis: “I finally defeated the most fearsome dragon”

When I come back to talk to Davis two weeks later, she’s in Brazil, in Rio, to promote The Woman King along with the cast. His is a mission: he wants to proclaim to the world that black cinema exists, is a significant and rigorous reality, and as such we must pay homage to it. Her is an act of love and also a political warning for the cinema that she calls “black”, for the stories she has always ignored, and for the countless performers who only sporadically have had the opportunity to affirm their talent.

If you change the subject, and go on to talk about the role of actresses in cinema today, she returns to the subject with a combative spirit, immediately underlining the difference between white and black actresses. Precisely for the latter – she repeats – she created with her husband, the actor Julius Tennon, her production company JuVee of her. And always for them he published his autobiography, Finding Mein which she tells her story as a dark-skinned childviolated and poor, who from the miserable rat-infested apartment of Rhode Island lands on the prestigious stages of New York, and then becomes one of the most acclaimed actresses in America.

Viola Davis, an Oscar, Emmy and Tony Award-winning actress

Davis to this day is thethe only African American star in the history of entertainment to have won an Oscar, Emmy and Tony Award. The Woman King is a different project from all for the interpreter of But Rainey’s Black Bottom: its realization – she confirms – coincided with a phase of personal rethinking and reinvention. In this film for the first time the interpreter of Barriers – Fences And The rules of the perfect crime (the popular TV series that catapulted her onto the international scene in 2014) turns into a heroine of myth, with pectorals and muscles of steel: Nanisca is a general who is determined to do everything to defend the ideals and independence of her people. A rather eloquent metaphor.

“General” Nanisca fights against the adversities and injustices of an enemy world. And Viola Davis?
I am Nanisca every day, as soon as I get up I have to fight against the world and, in addition, I have to fight against myself, to find the strength and courage to believe and support my struggle. The real challenge I face, however, is not the menacing dragons: it is a conflict that thunders within me. I’ve finally gotten to a point in life where I feel I’m worth something. I’m not saying – nor do I care that I’m a better person … Now I finally know I have value.

Personal fights and professional battles. The Woman King tells an unknown episode in African history, has a predominantly black cast and a budget of 50 million dollars. It must not have been easy to get it done
It was very very difficult (scans slowly). There are no suitable expressions in the English language to reflect the long struggle that takes place between the creation of a film and the moment you see it on screen. She, Alessandra, often uses the term “choice” and that term for us black actors – and for us dark-skinned African-American actresses – doesn’t suit us at all. Because she assumes that there is a mountain of screenplays developed by the studios and implies that they constantly ask us: “And what do you want to do after this project, an action movie or a comedy? And who do you want to work with? With Alejandro Iñárritu, with Darren Aronofsky?“. No, we black actresses don’t have those choices, we consider ourselves privileged, lucky, to take what comes; when it’s a good project, we won the lottery!

Viola Davis: “I am Nanisca every day”

But he convinced everyone to make his film.
But it was a never-ending battle. You have to fight to convince them that you can “export” the film globally and that it can make money; that studios and lenders can invest in that project; that our stories are interesting enough to convince whites (and white women), Hispanics, a worldwide audience to pay for a ticket. You have to work hard to cast actresses like Thuso (Thuso Mbedu seen in The Underground Railroad And Scandal, ed), Lashana (Lashana Lynch, formerly in No Time to Die, Captain Marvel, ed), Sheila (the Sheila Atim of Bruised – Struggle to live, Pinocchio, ed), because their resume is not that of white actresses. You have to kill yourself to convince the world that you can do it and you are worth it. You know, when I hear the phrase about a white actress: “So and so always makes interesting choices”, I would like to rephrase it: that actress has the possibility of great choices, we never have.

In the 291 pages of Finding Me she often returns to the importance of self-love, of love for oneself. She remembers that since she was a child she was desperately looking for confirmation, feeling herself not worthy“Not worthy”, even when she was accepted into the prestigious Juilliard New York acting school and began to be successful in the theater.
I don’t think self-love is talked about enough. We talk about romantic love, love for children, but love for oneself is the basis of everything. There is no escape from the Buddhist mantra “you more than anyone else deserve love and devotion”. Here because The Woman King it was so important to me: we black women are denied self-esteem. It is a social and cultural reality, we always hear ourselves repeating what we are not, what we cannot do, that we are not beautiful enough, that our nose is too wide, our lips too big. When I was a child, the only image of a black woman I knew was that of Cicely Tyson (American actress who died in 2021, ed), then Melba Moore (actress and singer, ed), but I don’t remember anyone with dark skin like mine who made me feel like a worthy being. I wanted to show these women why we rarely see them on screen: that’s the message of the film, and of my memories.

Even for non-black women it is possible to identify with certain descriptions and moments.
Of course, and it doesn’t surprise me at all because, strange as it may seem, there is nothing in my life that is not universal, common. I have always felt part of the immense human family, the problem is that this has not reciprocated me: “It’s not my problem, it’s only yours” seemed to be the reaction of many. I know that we African Americans are beautiful, others are not. I also know that those who leave the cinema after seeing our film feel profound emotions.

In the memoir you cite authors such as Joseph Campbell, Anton Cechov, Friedrich Nietzsche, Thomas Merton and always refer to texts of a spiritual nature. Do you consider yourself religious?
I consider myself deeply spiritual. When you want to tell your story you have to look inside yourself, deep inside. We must live and act with the heart, not with the brain and Merton, the Bible and even Nietzsche speak from the bottom of the heart. When I offer you my gift as an artist and you receive it, the gift starts from my heart, and it can change you. If it just stimulates your brain, you think about it for a while, then you go to dinner, have a glass of wine, and forget it. But if it comes straight to the heart you will never forget it, and you will never be the same person again.

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