Viola Davis has been answering questions posed by New York Times readers at the Toronto Film Festival this year, and they asked questions that some journalists wouldn’t immediately consider – including ‘Have you ever passed on a role and regretted it?’
While Davis said that as she has got older she’s passed on more roles and not regretted it - because she only wants to work on projects she truly believes in – she also added her own question, saying; ‘Almost a better question is, have I ever done roles that I’ve regretted?’ which warranted a much more interesting response.
‘I have, and “The Help” is on that list' she answered. 'But not in terms of the experience and the people involved because they were all great. The friendships that I formed are ones that I’m going to have for the rest of my life. I had a great experience with these other actresses, who are extraordinary human beings. And I could not ask for a better collaborator than Tate Taylor.
‘I just felt that at the end of the day that it wasn’t the voices of the maids that were heard. I know Aibileen. I know Minny. They’re my grandma. They’re my mom. And I know that if you do a movie where the whole premise is, I want to know what it feels like to work for white people and to bring up children in 1963, I want to hear how you really feel about it. I never heard that in the course of the movie.’
Viola Davies also touched on the difficulties she’s faced so far in her career, saying; ‘The responsibility of feeling like I am the great black female hope for women of color has been a real professional challenge.
‘Being that role model and picking up that baton when you’re struggling in your own life has been difficult. Looking at the deficit and seeing that once you’re on top, you can either take the role of leadership or you can toss it in the garbage and say, “I’m just out to save myself.” I choose to be the leader.’
Davies stars in Widows, a new crime drama coming to the UK on October 11, starring Liam Neeson, Daniel Kaluuya and Elizabeth Debicki where four men die trying to pull off a heist, and their widows pick up the job where they left off in order to secure a better future for themselves.