Actress Viola Davis has built a career out of playing the kind of strong, forceful women who were very rare in Hollywood mere decades ago, especially amongst Black actresses. In her upcoming film, Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Davis plays the strong and forceful lead character of Ma Rainey. In an interview with CinemaBlend, David explained why she does not view Ma Rainey as either the protagonist or antagonist of the story.
“I don’t view her as a protagonist or antagonist, because I can’t. An actor doesn’t do that. It’s like, you’ve got to portray the character exactly who they are. Whether they’re a protagonist or an antagonist, that’s for the audience, that’s a judgement. I portrayed her as a woman who literally is born in a world that doesn’t value her at all – that doesn’t even recognize her as a human being, but she is a person who understands her worth. So, therefore, she’s a woman who absolutely has busted a hole through 1927. She is a liberated woman. She is those people that you don’t know where the hell they came from, you know? It’s like where were you born? And she was born in Columbus, Georgia, actually.”
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom tells the story of legendary singer Ma Rainey, proclaimed by the music industry as the “Mother of the Blues”. The film, set in 1920s Chicago, deals with the events of a single afternoon when Ma Rainey prepares to put out a new album in a recording studio while warring with her studio manager over the rights to her musical creations. For Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s fiery temper while arguing with her manager was the forceful nature of a woman who knew her worth and refused to be shortchanged.
“I just saw her as a woman who knew her worth and wasn’t going to concede. It wasn’t up for discussion. I know that [as Ma] I’m great at what I do, I know it’s making you money, I should be called the Mother of the Blues. I’m influencing all these other singers, so you treat me like I deserve to be treated. And that’s it. That’s how I saw her. And of course other things, too, unapologetic about her sexuality, certainly a sensitivity and a maternal instinct and all of those things.”
The movie is also notable for being the last performance of late actor Chadwick Boseman, who passed away earlier this year. Early reviews for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom have been uniformly glowing, and the project has all the markings of being Netflix’s next big hit of the year, following other notable female-led entries including The Old Guard, and The Queen’s Gambit.
Directed by George C. Wolfe and based on a play of the same name by August Wilson, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom stars Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Glynn Turman, Taylour Paige, and Michael Potts. The film arrives on Netflix on December 18. This news comes from CinemaBlend.