Viola Davis: “I’m always looking for my essence”

Viola Davis’ star power is undeniable. After being the first black actress to win the “triple crown” (Tony, Oscar and Emmy Awards), she is taking on her most challenging role yet. In the upcoming film The Woman King, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and written by Dana Stevens, she plays Nanisca, a general in the all-female military unit known as Agojie. The film tells the true story of the Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful African states of the 18th and 19th centuries. To play that fighter, she exhibits her acting talent and incredible physical transformation of hers. But she’s not just about an ultra-challenging lead. Also, along with Cathy Schulman, she is one of the producers.

In the professional and personal journey of Viola Davis, everything is an addition. Because, in addition to the Tony and the Oscar for her role in the Broadway revival and the film adaptation of the play Fences and for being the first black actress to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead in a Drama Series, for How to Get Away With Murder, is the new ambassador of L’Oréal Paris (the brand chose her for her support of human rights and her empowering public commitments) and an emblem of self-improvement. In her recent book, Finding me (Harperone), she lays bare the process that took her from a childhood of extreme poverty and family violence to Hollywood stardom. She says that at the age of 9 she realized that being an actress was the way to escape from reality and to be others, to be many. “I know that I became an actress so as not to be myself, so as not to have my life,” she launches. The vocational call came to her thanks to the film The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and its protagonist, Cicely Tyson: “She had a long neck and was beautiful, dark, sweaty, high cheekbones, full, full lips, and a short, clean afro. It was as if a hand reached out to mine and I finally saw the exit, ”she acknowledges. But even being a consecrated actress, she continued to feel a deep emptiness and anguish, which led her to review her origins to finally embrace that girl she was and reconcile with her pain. .

We were with Davis in Los Angeles, shortly before the premiere of La Mujer Rey, and this she told us.

What attracted you to the role of Nanisca as an actress and what about the film to also embark on the role of producer?

I felt like the role really spoke to me as a black woman, in terms of tapping into every aspect of me: my strength, my vulnerability, my history, my femininity, my messiness. This is a role that contains me. And what attracted me to the project was that I am someone who is always looking for its essence. I want my identity separate from how Hollywood or white Hollywood has identified me. I want to identify myself, and I was able to do this project to encourage other black women and shine a light on their talents and their gifts, and illuminate a part of our history that has never been told or even known.

Were you familiar with the Agojie warriors before the project? What would you say are the main characteristics with which you related to Nanisca?

I was familiar with them, although they were a great mystery to me. That kind of thing that you heard from a distance, but I had never investigated until the film came to me. The main characteristic is to understand the role from its leadership role. Absolutely, without a doubt, you have to be the person who puts his feet in the plate first, and she knows that. I understand what my work is worth and how she identifies me, and I am also someone who is always coming to terms with her past.

The role is very physical and different from anything we’ve seen you do. How did you prepare for this role?

Well, I’m a very muscular woman, anyway. I did an hour and a half of weight training, five days a week, and two and a half hours of martial arts. I’m 56 years old; it was very hard because they wanted it to look ultra-strong. And they taught me to do hand-to-hand combat and to use the machete, because that was Nanisca’s main weapon.

Did you have any injuries throughout this process or a moment when you felt like you didn’t want more?

Yes. There was an injury, but it was before it started. I tore my cruciate ligaments. But I am very tough. It didn’t bother me during training or afterwards. What did hurt a lot was my arm, from moving the machete so much.

What was the most difficult part of the film: achieving that physical aspect or playing a character like this?

For me, the physical part was the most difficult, but the performance, being in Africa, was tremendous. One of the roles in which all aspects of the character operate one hundred percent. But yes, the physical was very, very difficult.

How do you think the history of the Agojie warriors is linked to the present of black women?

We are the backbone of our society. In truth, women in general are the backbone of the family. Those of us who take care of the children. If you study the tribes of Africa, they are the ones that go out looking for food. We are the glue that holds the family together. The heart and the soul. Vulnerability, which is also part of the feminine energy, I think we’re seeing a lot more of it now. And I have to say, and maybe because we’ve faced a lot of adversity as black women, we do the work knowing that no one is watching our backs. We have saved the elections. We have saved the movies. We have preserved our children, our marriages and our families, and many times we have done it alone. So that’s the role we play and I always pray for the day when people see it. But even if they don’t, that’s fine.

How did working with such a stellar cast of women make you feel?

Did you know? It was the joy of my life, it really was. There is a saying, especially among older actors with a lot of experience, that your sky is their flat. I felt like the baton we’re passing on to this younger generation of talent. It’s so amazing when you see the talented people that are taking her and running her leg of the race. That’s what it feels like. You see the future, the confidence, the self-love, the security, their vision and purpose. It was a pleasure working with them.

What is the most important thing you take away from this experience and what would you like the public to take away?

I can’t dictate to people how they should feel or what to wear. You can just plant a seed. But I want them to take away our ability to expand as black people. Not only in how we have contributed to history, our power, ingenuity, excellence, talent, intelligence, substance, but also how complicated we are, how vast we are as human beings. I want them to see us as human beings, not just as a metaphor and image or an anomaly. That is what I want.