Viola Davis buffs up for grieving role in ‘Widows’
Oscar winner back in awards discussion with “physically strong” performance in Steve McQueen thriller.
Viola Davis is receiving rave reviews as Veronica Rawlins in “Widows,” a role that has put last year’s Oscar winner for best supporting actress right back in the awards discussion.
But there’s another force on display in Davis’ portrayal of a grieving widow compelled to finish her dead husband’s final heist.
She’s buff in director Steve McQueen’s thriller.
Davis, 53, says that’s clear, even if “it’s hard to look at myself onscreen and comment on myself.”
“But I saw the buffness and that Steve McQueen was emphasizing it onscreen,” she says. “It’s great when women are seen as physically strong. There’s so much emphasis placed with women looking tiny and slim and petite – femininity is associated with all of those things. It’s nice when it’s associated with strong.”
McQueen says Davis was an obvious choice to lead the ensemble of wivesturned-heisters including Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki and (a recruited babysitter) Cynthia Erivo. Davis already has the acting pedigree and brings viewers along on her character’s gradual physical transformation to convincing burglar.
“Veronica cannot suddenly be
(tough); she has to develop into that character. It’s a journey you want the audience to believe, so we took our time in telling the story,” McQueen says.
During filming on location in Chicago, Davis added intense, thrice-weekly weight training sessions to her regular workout schedule. She laughingly recalls enduring exercises that had her stepping onto a 3-foot-box with hand weights. “We did that so many times, Lord I lost count.”
“Sometimes my trainer would tell me something to do, and I would look at him like he was completely insane,” Davis says. “At one point I said, ‘You know how old I am, right?’ I said, ‘OK, if my heart rate goes up too much, I could have a heart attack.’
“Listen, I did everything I could to get out of it. But it didn’t work.”
Davis struggled at first carrying the 60-pound shoulder bags Veronica’s crew trained with to prepare for moving massive amounts of money.
“I don’t usually do running in movies. This was the first time I had to do as much,” Davis says. “That was very challenging. I fell a couple of times and rolled over the bag. “I mean, it was ridiculous.”
But like her Cynthia, by the time McQueen was ready to shoot the elaborate climatic heist scene, Davis was in action mode.
“I did feel very strong at that point,” she says. “I was physically able to go there.”
McQueen enhanced the heist reality by shooting at night in a Hyde Park mansion while having Davis and crew sprint up stairs in their dark thief attire.
“We actually felt like we were in it, breaking into a house to get money,” she says. “There was adrenaline rushing, and it was terrifying.
“I’m not used to doing anything like that. I don’t break into homes, even onscreen.”
But Davis felt she ultimately pulled off the her character’s physicality. There’s one action aspect, however, about which she still doesn’t feel confident: driving the escape car.
“Every single time there’s a stunt that’s driving, they have me do it. And I don’t know why. I failed my driving test so many times,” she says. “I don’t even see myself as a great driver.”