In just a few short days “Widows” will make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The caper’s star, Viola Davis, is speaking out about her look in the film, and why it matters. In prepping for the project, the Oscar winner asked “what kind of wig or extensions she should wear to play Veronica Rawlins, the leader of an unlikely band of robbers scrambling to pull off a dangerous heist,” Variety reports. She was shocked by director Steve McQueen’s answer: He told her that her own hair is beautiful and to wear it as-is.
In a new interview with Variety, Davis explains how her hairstyle in the pic represents an important social statement. “You’re always taught as a person of color to not like your hair,” she says. “The kinkier it is, the so-called nappier it is, the uglier it is.” She continued, “We’re into a zeitgeist where people are fighting for their space to be seen. People have to know that there are different types of women of color. We’re not all Foxy Brown. We’re not all brown or light-skinned beauties with a big Afro. We have the girl next door. We have the older, dark-skinned, natural-haired woman.”
Davis also spoke about the dearth of roles for women of color, and the lack of complex roles for women more generally. “People try to be too nice with women,” she observes. “They keep them pretty. They keep them likable. They cater to male fantasies. They cater to the male gaze. This film didn’t do that.”
The “Fences” actress supports the push in Hollywood for equal pay, but emphasizes that women of color don’t just make less than male actors — their salaries are also significantly lower than white women. “There are no percentages to show the difference,” she says. “It’s vast. Hispanic women, Asian women, black women, we don’t get paid what Caucasian women get paid. We just don’t. … We have the talent. It’s the opportunity that we’re lacking.”
As for how the industry can change, Davis believes that will only be possible once execs become more inclusive. “We’re not even invited to the table,” she explains. “I go to a lot of women’s events here in Hollywood, and they’re filled with female CEOs, producers, and executives, but I’m one of maybe five or six people of color in the room.”
Head over to Variety to read more about Davis’ upbringing and outlook on the industry and life. Her upcoming projects include African female warrior story “The Woman King” and “Small Great Things,” an adaptation of a Jodi Picoult novel about a black nurse in a legal battle with a white supremacist couple.
