Maybe if a black woman wants a leading role, she has to create it herself.
Viola Davis spent 27 years shining in mostly supporting parts before her Oscar-nominated turn in “The Help” and her lead in ABC’s “How to Get Away With Murder” proved she deserves to be front and center.
So Davis founded JuVee Productions with her husband, Julius Tennon, in 2012 to develop the diverse, female-driven projects that have been so hard to find.
“I believe that my potential, my talent, is limitless — as limitless as Julianne Moore or Meryl Streep or Cate Blanchett — if I have the narrative, the direction, the other actors,” says Davis, 49, who costars with Jennifer Lopez in her company’s first feature film “Lila & Eve” opening Friday.
The movie follows two grieving mothers who become vigilantes after losing their children to street violence. It showcases both women and minorities, which is the exception to the rule.
Hollywood is still not diversifying as fast as its audience. Even though 46% of moviegoers in 2013 were minorities, only 16.7% of movies released that year starred people of color in lead roles, according to the UCLA 2015 Hollywood Diversity Report. And women lagged 2-to-1 as film leads.
So Davis took a cue from “How to Get Away With Murder” creator and television writer/producer goddess Shonda Rhimes, and took charge of her career.
“The only way I was going to get the narratives and find things that I would be at the forefront of was if I drove it,” explains Davis, who is also an executive producer on her new film.
“They don’t write much for No. 10 or No. 14 on the call sheet — which I’ve been a lot,” she says of her bit parts. “I had to just squeeze out every bit of life in those one or two scenes, so that I could show my talent.”
Those days are over. Now Davis is lining up major projects for herself, including the still-untitled Harriet Tubman HBO movie and the family court drama series “Custody” in development, which stars Davis, Ellen Burstyn, Catalina Sandino Moreno and Hayden Panettiere.
She is also filming the DC Comics’ anti-hero epic “Suicide Squad,” where she plays villainous leader Amanda Waller. And she continues scoring accolades for her Screen Actors Guild Award-winning portrayal of fearless professor Annalise Keating on “How to Get Away with Murder,” which returns for a second season this fall.
Her “Lila & Eve” director, Charles Stone III, supports the push to get more diverse movies made.
“When I first read the script, I immediately got excited by the potential opportunity of seeing a woman (and a woman of color,) not just take matters into her own hands by seeking revenge, but also realize the moral implications of her actions and find the courage to make things right,” he says
“It was a no-brainer that Viola was the actor to make Lila come to life,” he adds. “Viola is the consummate student of the craft — dedicated solely to the character and her journey of transformation. For someone whose stature of talent is so high, there was no pretense or ‘gift bags’ of diva requirements.”
Davis was drawn to make “Lila & Eve,” because of its complex female characters, who test the audience’s sympathy.
“Ultimately what she decides to do is wrong, but the fact that she decides to do something is interesting,” she says. “We know women want to be in positions of leadership. We know women don’t all want to be likable, and aren’t always likable. Women have evolved to the point of being very complicated, and it’s gotta be reflected in art.”
The actress respects Rhimes’ gutsy self-confidence, which led to the showrunner’s diverse and female-fronted “Shondaland Thursdays,” a three-hour block on ABC that includes “Murder,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal.”
“She is unapologetic about what she wants,” says Davis. “A lot of our business can be built on fear. You just put things together to make money, or that an audience is going to like, because you fear you’re going to fail. If [Rhimes] fears failure, I don’t see it, because she is her authentic self.”
Davis is tough enough to take get real on camera, such as her buzzed-about scene on “Murder” this year where she stripped off her wig and makeup.
In “Lila & Eve,” she also breaks down to reveal herself at her most vulnerable — a performance that she drew from a friend whose child was raped and murdered in 1987.
“It’s a grief that there are no words to describe. There’s no end to it. It’s like having an incurable disease,” says Davis. “And so I wanted to honor her. I didn’t want to minimize her pain.”
Becoming a mother herself by adopting her daughter Genesis in 2011 also grounded this role in reality. “I would never have given the same performance if I didn’t have a daughter,” she says. “What I understand now is the depth of love that you have for your child, and knowing that if something happened to them, that would be it. That would be your life.”
Davis also found a terrific acting partner in Lopez, who plays Eve, who meets Lila in a support group and spurs her take justice after local police appear to drop her son’s murder case.
The women previously acted together in “Out of Sight” in 1998, but fell back into an easy rapport.
“With me and her, it just clicks,” says Davis. “The same thing happened with Denzel Washington when I worked with him in ‘Fences’ [on Broadway in 2010]. If me and Jennifer ever sit in the same room together, it wouldn’t be hard for me to get her to understand where I’m coming from. It’s like when I met my husband. It was destiny.”
