I don’t need to have a sword to be a warrior, Davis says.
I have the warrior spirit in me.
“Every part of it was divine and magical,” Davis tells EW of filming the historical epic.
Viola Davis in ‘The Woman King’.Ilze Kitshoff/TriStar Pictures
It’s just not going to happen.
I dreamed the biggest dream and it’s not going to happen.'
“And then it does.
Lashana Lynch, Viola Davis, Shelia Atim in ‘The Woman King’.Ilze Kitshoff/TriStar Pictures
“I remember the first time we did martial arts training in the gym together,” Davis recalls.
“I was like, ‘Oh, my God, what am I doing at 50-something?
you’re gonna wanna sit your ass down.’
Viola Davis wages war against European colonialism in ‘The Woman King’.Ilze Kitshoff/TriStar Pictures
But that was a huge experience because it was hard.
“She went on to tell the story of the Agojie and Dahomey, and they all started cheering.
That was my first introduction to the fact that there was a story out there.”
General Nanisca (Viola Davis) and King Ghezo (Joh Boyega) in ‘The Woman King’.Ilze Kitshoff/TriStar Pictures
(Bello shares a story credit with screenwriter Stevens.)
The first scene they shot had the Agojie all slowly rising up from the brush, vengeance at hand.
“That was a moment right there,” Davis says of the scene.
From left, Nawi (Thuso Mbedu), Izogie (Lashana Lynch), and Amenza (Sheila Atim) in ‘The Woman King’.Ilze Kitshoff/TriStar Pictures
“The thing about it is we wanted it to be authentic,” she explains.
“And whenever it is authentic, I’m sorry, it’s going to cost you something.
You’re channeling another human being and most of these human beings are in trauma.
you might imagine where those came from.
And Nanisca is a sexual assault survivor.
Mbedu learned she has “a voice that matters and can create.”
“You cannot afford to wait for the next person to make it happen.
The fight will hurt, but it doesn’t mean you stop.”
We’re badass.”
And that lesson is universal.
“I always say you got to dare to fail,” she says.
“We can lead the box office,” adds Davis.
