Interview: From Central Falls to Oscar With Viola Davis of ‘Doubt’

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CHICAGO – Having met Viola Davis, Oscar-nominated for “Doubt,” it’s easy to believe that people who have spent time with this charming, fascinating woman might be more inclined to give her the edge in the very close Best Supporting Actress race.

It’s been long-rumored that an actor’s personality can play a major role in if they win an Oscar. It’s not that the performance isn’t the main focus of the award, but it’s human nature for people to want to reward colleagues that they respect and like. Davis is very easy to like and impossible not to admire.

Viola Davis as Mrs. Miller.
Viola Davis as Mrs. Miller.
Photo credit: Andrew Schwartz/Miramax Film Corp.

Davis has been doing a quick PR tour to promote her role in “Doubt,” one that earned her a first Oscar nomination, alongside nods for Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams, and she was kind enough to give a little time to HollywoodChicago.com. In an all-too-brief interview, Davis covered her past in Central Falls, Rhode Island, the process she used to bring Mrs. Miller to life, and what it feels like to be an Oscar nominee.

Going all the way back to the beginning, Viola Davis remembers vividly when she knew she wanted to be an actress. She was only six, living on Washington Street in Central Falls, when she saw Cicely Tyson in “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” and it was over.

“It was like Christ himself had appeared or Moses had parted the Red Sea,” Davis says. “She was dark-skinned. She had full lips. She had an afro. She looked just like my mother. She was vulnerable. She was feminine. I thought that I was watching a miracle unfold before me. And I said, “I want to do that. That’s what I want to do. I want to create that kind of magic.””

Growing up in Central Falls was not easy for Davis, but her background played in to her understanding of Mrs. Miller and influenced her performance in “Doubt”. She gave us a little history - “[“Doubt” is set in] ‘64. I was born in ‘65 in St. Matthews, South Carolina on a farm. My grandmother delivered me.”

Viola Davis from the 15th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Viola Davis from the 15th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards
Photo credit: TNT.

“Two months after I was born we moved to Central Falls, Rhode Island where my father groomed and trained horses. Central Falls is a predominately Catholic and white community. We were the only black family. And we’re not Catholic. So, we very much were on the periphery and very much wanting to be a part of something and be accepted. Shunned. I’ve had to see my mom being an advocate for us several times in situations that normally wouldn’t be thrown at you. So, a lot of my research came from life. I always say that Mrs. Miller makes a “Sophie’s Choice”. She doesn’t make your average, everyday choice.”

Davis admits that she saw the potential of her role in “Doubt” from the very beginning, largely due to the quality of her “perfectly cast” colleagues in the film, all of whom were signed on before Davis. And the part did win a Tony for the actress who played it on Broadway.

In fact, if anything, even though she’s won a Tony herself, Davis was intimidated by her fellow castmates. She says, “To me, when I walked into it, I said, they’re extraordinary, they’re exquisite. I felt like the hack. I felt like the unknown. I felt like the one who really had to prove herself and hold up my end of the bargain. I think that I felt, at first, that this could possibly just get me some attention and more work. That’s what I thought. And then once I went to my first rehearsal, I went into survival mode. I went from “It could get me attention” to “Oh my God, I just need to hold up my end of the bargain.”

Meryl Streep as Sister Aloysius and Viola Davis as Mrs. Miller
Meryl Streep as Sister Aloysius and Viola Davis as Mrs. Miller
Photo credit: Miramax Film Corp.

In working to hold up her end of the bargain, Davis wrote dozens of pages of back story for Mrs. Miller. As she notes, this was her only shot. “I don’t have another scene to establish her. I don’t have a scene where you establish her relationship with her husband or her son. I have nothing but this scene, so I had to create this back story.”

And Davis was careful not to be a social mouthpiece or merely a plot device for the rest of the film. She says, “For this role, I thought there was a trap where you could hear the argument with Sister Aloysius but not see the person behind the argument. You could get the effect. But I wanted to create someone where you could see what her life is like. “I can see that she loves her son. I can see that life is probably not what she thought it would be. I can see that she’s not always strong.” I wanted people to feel for her as well as hear the argument.”

After the film’s release and several nominations came the morning of January 22nd, 2009, when the Oscar nominations were announced. With a bottle of champagne and joined by her husband and publicist, Viola Davis slept for only an hour the night before and spent most of that morning “screaming down the frickin’ hallways of the Four Seasons. I think about now. It was so primal.”

And she hasn’t really stopped screaming. When asked if she still feels that primal joy that made her want to jump up and down, a full, beautiful smile crosses her face, she nods, and says, “Jumping up and down. Absolutely. Absolutely. Jumping up and down, still. I’ll be jumping up and down for years to come.”

‘Doubt’ stars Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis. ‘Doubt,’ was written and directed by John Patrick Shanley, is currently in theaters.

HollywoodChicago.com content director Brian Tallerico

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

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