Viola Davis Is Leveraging Her ‘Power’ To Change How Black Women Are Seen In Hollywood

Viola Davis is not afraid to push buttons to claim agency over the way people see Black women both on and off the television screen.

In an interview with The Guardian’s G2, Davis explained how The Woman King has finally become her catalyst to achieve “ownership” over her career like she’s always dreamed. As a dark-skinned Black woman in Hollywood, the Oscar-winning actress said she aims to showcase and reinforce who Black women truly are beyond their gaze.

“I arrived in Hollywood having hopes and dreams for my career, but never quite having ownership or agency,” she said.

“The Woman King has seemed like the ultimate gift and conduit to give me that agency.”

The powerful epic, which Davis has described as a fictionalized account based on a true story, spotlights the lives of the Agojie warriors, an all-woman army in the African Kingdom of Dahomey between the 17th and 19th centuries. Earning an A-plus CinemaScore from audiences, The Woman King (released on September 16) brought in at least $19 million domestically on its opening weekend.

Since then, the film’s mixed reviews have triggered the star to come to defense about its historical accuracy and its resonance on global and international audiences. Critics also claimed that Davis glorified the Agojie and urged social media boycotts because the tribe was historically involved in the slave trade.

In response, Davis confirmed that the story “has to be” fictionalized for these “universal” and “human” stories to reach other groups beyond Black audiences, BLACK ENTERPRISE previously reported.

The South Carolina native is used to fighting her way through the traumatic hauntings of poverty, racism, sexual abuse, domestic violence, and alcoholism. Her role in bringing The Woman King to Hollywood was no easy feat, but it’s a win in her books to document parts of African history that appeal to everyone.

“What is in my power to change is to show people that we are more than the stamp that people have put on dark-skinned women,” Davis further explained in G2.

“That we are sexual, that we are desirable, that we can be smart, that we are way more expansive and our identity is not determined by your gaze. I can change that. I can change the way Black women are seen, to some extent, within the industry,” she continued.