Viola Davis was so good it made Emma Stone forget her lines: “The first time in my life”
Andrew Garfield’s description of Emma Stone as being ‘like a shot of coffee’ is perhaps the most accurate there is, with the actor possessing an infinitely watchable quality with her commanding on-screen presence. Whether it be her transformative role in Poor Things, the bittersweet charm of La La Land or meta commentary of The Curse, her work and creativity knows no limits, with an endless sense of spirit and charisma that is infectiously present in each performance.
After beginning her career as a teenager, moving to Los Angeles with her mother and starting the long and tedious process of auditioning, she shortly found success through comedies like Easy A, Superbad and Zombieland, eventually expanding on her dramatic talents and knack for absurdism through her creative partnership with Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos. However, there was perhaps one role that launched this part of her career, starring in the 2011 film The Help and fulfilling a lifelong dream of working with one of the greatest actors out there.
The Help follows the lives of two maids and one college graduate whose lives intertwine as they investigate the racial divide in Jackson and the unspoken role of ‘the help’. Starring Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, it was generally received well at the time of its release despite falling into many problematic narrative tropes that have come to define some films from this era that attempt to explore race.
But while it may not land on all the storytelling elements, the performances are exceptional, with Davis once again stealing the show in her depiction of a maid who is grieving her son while caring for other people’s children.
When discussing what it was like to work with Davis, Stone only had gushing praise for her, saying, “With Viola, this is embarrassing to say in front of you so I can’t look at you – the thing about Viola is that she’s like nothing I’ve ever seen or experienced before in that I, for the first time in my life, forgot to act in scenes. It’s like she’s imbued with a different kind of presence. That’s why I’m not surprised that you [Viola] say you couldn’t do any other job [besides acting]. You were put here to do what you do and you change lives doing what you do. And you changed my life doing what you do just being in scenes with her”.
In addition, Stone shared the advice that Davis offered to her that changed her perspective on acting, explaining, “And then her advice is so amazing. The day that I came to you and said, ‘No, no, no I don’t know what I’m doing and I just feel like I’m not getting there. I feel like I’m not getting there. What do you think, Viola? I don’t want you to give me notes, but what do you think?’ She’s like, ‘I’m worried about what I’m doing. I can’t think about how you’re getting to your there. Just do your own thing’. Just lessons like that. But there was just so much I learned not only in what she said but in the way she does it. I also realized that you can’t teach what she does. So, I never expect to get anywhere near that”.
While it is intimidating to work with our heroes, perhaps the lessons learned are worth the initial feelings of imposter syndrome, allowing us to be inspired by their wisdom and infuse elements of their greatness into our own work.
