I felt very sexy in a fat suit
VIOLA DAVIS EMBODIES THE ROLE OF A LEGENDARY BLUES SINGER IN THE NEW NETFLIX FILM MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM. BY
VIOLA DAVIS wants variety. ‘That’s what every actor wants,’ she says. ‘They want roles that are multifaceted, that show the full range of your work. If. You. Can. Get. It. Can I say that again? Let me say that again: IF… YOU… CAN… GET… IT!’
Wearing a fuchsia-coloured jacket that’s brightening up our Zoom chat, Davis is starting to remind me of Amanda Waller, the hard-ass she played in Suicide Squad. Let’s just say you want her on your side in an argument.
A three-time Oscar nominee, winning Best Supporting Actress for 2017’s Fences, Davis is back with another awards-worthy role. Like Fences, the Netflix-streamed Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is an adaptation of an August Wilson play. But this time it’s based on
the real early blues singer Ma Rainey – a no-nonsense diva who in the film has arrived at a 1920s Chicago recording studio to lay down the track that will make her a star. She’s big, she’s bisexual and she does not care what anyone thinks.
‘I didn’t want to play an archetype because if I were to be so bold, so many white people often see big, overweight black women like Ma Rainey and they automatically feel like she’s got to be funny,’ says Davis. ‘She’s more than just comedic relief. And that’s what I tried to channel: the woman who could be at an orgy on Thursday – which is the case, by the way, she could be in an orgy on Thursday with a bunch of women and get arrested. And on Sunday she was at church.’
It’s another remarkable performance from Davis, who is surely now one of the leading actresses of her generation. Even so, you’ve never seen her like this: gaining weight (she got close to 200lbs) and wearing prosthetics, she commands the room. She even had her fat suit made to the measurements of Aretha Franklin.
‘I wanted that body,’ she says. ‘I felt very sexy with that fat suit.’
As brilliant as Davis is, her co-star may get all the attention. The film features Chadwick Boseman’s last role before he died of cancer this year, aged 43. The Black Panther star is sensational as Levee, a trumpet player with big dreams. Does Davis feel his work deserves a posthumous Oscar? ‘Ah, absolutely it merits an Oscar,’ she says. ‘But even if it doesn’t get an Oscar, it does not minimise it as being an absolutely bravura, fantastic performance.’ Davis, who was born on her grandma’s farm in South Carolina and raised in Rhode Island, where her father worked as a horse trainer, is almost the opposite of most actors now. She trained for nine years, including at the Juilliard School. ‘Now it’s become a dirty word, to go to acting school, to have a craft,’ she says. ‘You have to fly by the seat of your pants, be cute and young – everything but trained.’
Nevertheless, it’s served her well, right back to when she graduated and started working in theatre. ‘I’ve collected unemployment in the past when I’ve done my stage work,’ she says. ‘An occupational hazard!’ Married for 18 years to actor Julius Tennon – they have one daughter – Davis is finally getting the variety she craves.
‘At this age – at the beautiful young age of 55 – I’m finding those roles,’ she says. ‘That’s what I want in my career.’
she could be in an orgy on thursday and get arrested, and on sunday she was at church