Gina Prince-Bythewood opens up about Viola Davis and ‘The Woman King’
American filmmaker Gina Prince-Bythewood created one of the most interesting blockbusters of the year in the form of The Woman King. Starring Viola Davis as a Dahomey general, The Woman King received critical acclaim for its uncompromising vision.
During a conversation with Deadline, the director revealed she was intimated at the prospect of working with Davis: “I’m not going to lie; that was my biggest intimidation. I literally said, ‘What am I going to possibly say to Viola Davis? How do I direct her?’ And I think I went in with a whack assumption that probably everybody else does, that she steps on set, and she’s just great because she’s great. Viola is great, but she’s great because she works at it. And I got to have a front-row seat to the level of work she puts into these characters.”
Prince-Bythewood added: “She absolutely wants to be directed. She does not want to be left alone. And so that’s a great comfort as well. But it was like the first, I don’t know, couple of days, I finally went to her; I said, ‘I feel really stupid because every time I come up to you, I’m saying that was great.’ Because it was. it was a really good collaborative relationship.”
Although The Woman King has been hailed as one of the best movies of 2022, many viewers felt that it was responsible for distorting history. According to the filmmaker, historical epics like The Woman King play an important role in empowering audiences.
The director noted: “Everything we learn starts there. And there’s so much more history that we need to be in touch with that we’re not. And it’s just such a mystery to so many, and we need that. We need to be able to see ourselves as heroic or as kings or as queens and women kings; we’re missing that. And so those stories need to be told.”
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