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Viola Davis 'conflicted' as 'Woman King' faces crucial box office battle

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Andrew Marzal, Agence France Presse

TORONTO, Canada - Viola Davis said the future of big-budget Black female filmmaking in Hollywood is at stake as her ground-breaking African warrior epic &quot;The Woman King&quot; hits theaters this weekend.The Oscar-winning actress told AFP Wednesday she feels intense pressure and conflicting emotions, because she knows the movie&#x27;s performance will be judged in a way that films with white directors and casts are not.&quot;First of all, the movie has to make money. And I feel conflicted about that -- that we sort of have one or two chances,&quot; she said.&quot;If it doesn&#x27;t make money then what it means overall, is that, what, Black women, dark-skinned Black women can&#x27;t lead a global box office?&quot;That&#x27;s it, period. And now they have data on it because &#x27;Woman King&#x27; did a, b and c. And that&#x27;s what I&#x27;m conflicted about.&quot;Because it simply isn&#x27;t true. We don&#x27;t do that with white movies. We simply don&#x27;t. If a movie fails, you do another movie, and you do another movie just like it.&quot;Sony Pictures&#x27; &quot;The Woman King,&quot; which portrays the real-life 19th century all-female warriors of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, is in many ways a step into the unknown for a major Hollywood studio.With a Black female director, Gina Prince-Bythewood, and a majority Black and female cast, it will open in more than 3,000 domestic theaters, with a budget including marketing that reportedly approaches $100 million.Davis, the only African-American to win an Oscar, Emmy and Tony, spent six years trying to get &quot;The Woman King&quot; made, with studios and producers reluctant to take the plunge.<div>&#x27;PROVE IT&#x27;</div>She plays veteran warrior Nanisca as she trains the next generation of recruits fending off a larger, rival African kingdom and European slavers.The all-female army of the Dahomey kingdom served as an inspiration for the elite women fighters in &quot;Black Panther,&quot; which grossed $1.3 billion worldwide.Davis called on the movie-going public to prove that films like &quot;The Woman King&quot; can succeed without being part of the Marvel superhero franchise.&quot;We&#x27;re all in this together, right? We know that we need each other. We know that we&#x27;re all committed to inclusion and diversity,&quot; she said.&quot;Then, if you can plop down your money to see &#x27;Avatar,&#x27; If you can plop down your money to see &#x27;Titanic,&#x27; then you can plop your money into seeing &#x27;The Woman King.&#x27;&quot;Because here&#x27;s the thing. It&#x27;s not even that it&#x27;s just Black female-led, the cultural significance of it. It&#x27;s a very entertaining movie.&quot;And if we are indeed equal, then I&#x27;m challenging you to prove it.&quot;<div>&#x27;YOU WON&#x27;T SEE US&#x27;</div>The movie received largely positive reviews following its world premiere at the ongoing Toronto International Film Festival.Variety called it a &quot;compelling display of Black power,&quot; with Davis in &quot;her fiercest role yet.&quot;But, Davis said, the film&#x27;s muscular battle scenes had drawn criticism and misogyny from within the Black community.&quot;You even have people in the Black community saying, &#x27;Ah, it&#x27;s dark-skinned women, why do they have to be so masculine? Why can&#x27;t they look prettier? Why couldn&#x27;t it be a romantic comedy?&#x27;&quot; she told AFP.&quot;Well, guess what, if this movie doesn&#x27;t make money September 16 -- by the way, I am 150 percent certain it will -- but if it doesn&#x27;t, then guess what? You won&#x27;t see us at all,&quot; she said.&quot;That&#x27;s the truth. I wish it were different.&quot;

Viola Davis said the future of big-budget Black female filmmaking in Hollywood is at stake as her ground-breaking African warrior epic 'The Woman King' hits theaters this weekend.

Viola Davis 'conflicted' as 'Woman King' faces crucial box office battle

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Viola Davis 'conflicted' as 'Woman King' faces crucial box office battle

Andrew Marzal,

Agence France Presse

Published Sep 15, 2022 08:44 AM PHT

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Viola Davis

Toronto Film Festival

Woman King

box office

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