Viola Davis admits she ‘betrayed’ herself with role in The Help

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Hollywood actress Viola Davis has opened up about how she feels she ‘betrayed’ herself with her role in The Help.

The How To Get Away with Murder star, who has built an acclaimed career and in her time achieved the ‘Triple Crown of Acting’ – winning an Emmy, an Oscar and a Tony award – opened up in an interview with Vanity Fair about her views on the role.

The 2011 film, which is set in Mississippi in the 1960s, follows Black maids working for rich families in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement.

It has become one of the most-watched films on Netflix amid the prominence recent Black Lives Matter movement, however, Viola has claimed the film was “created in the filter and the cesspool of systemic racism”.

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"Not a lot of narratives are also invested in our humanity,” says @ViolaDavis, who’s set to star as Michelle Obama and blues legend Ma Rainey in upcoming projects. “They’re invested in the idea of what it means to be Black, but…it’s catering to the white audience. The white audience at the most can sit and get an academic lesson into how we are. Then they leave the movie theater and they talk about what it meant. They’re not moved by who we were.” At the link in bio, the Academy Award winner speaks to @soniasaraiya about championing Black stories, her journey to Hollywood, and what she hopes her company, JuVee Productions, will provide to young non-white actors." Story by @soniasaraiya Photographed by @dario.studio Styled by @elizabethstewart1 Makeup by @autumnmoultriebeauty Hair by @jamikawilson Gown: @alexandermcqueen Earrings: @jenniferfisherjewelry Cuff: @celine 🔁@vanityfair

A post shared by VIOLA DAVIS (@violadavis) on Jul 14, 2020 at 9:04am PDT

 

It was “invested in the idea of what it means to be Black” but catered “to the white audience”, claimed Viola after the film had recently been criticised for it’s alleged “white saviour” narrative.

“There’s no one who’s not entertained by The Help,” she said.

“But there’s a part of me that feels like I betrayed myself, and my people, because I was in a movie that wasn’t ready to [tell the whole truth],” the actress told Vanity Fair.

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“I was that journeyman actor, trying to get in.”

However, Viola spoke about her respect for the film’s writer and director, Tate Taylor, and praised the predominantly female cast, made up of Emma Stone, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer.

“I cannot tell you the love I have for these women, and the love they have for me,” she said.

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“But with any movie – are people ready for the truth?”

Co-star Bryce Dallas Howard also recently spoke out about the film, saying, “I’m so grateful for the exquisite friendships that came from that film — our bond is something I treasure deeply and will last a lifetime.

“This being said, The Help is a fictional story told through the perspective of a white character and was created by predominantly white storytellers. We can all go further,” she wrote on Facebook, when she shared a list of alternative films that “centre black lives”.