*Viola Davis leads the all-star cast of Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki and Cynthia Erivo for director Steve McQueen writer Gillian Flynn’s crime drama “Widows.”
According to the official synopsis, the story centers on four women with nothing in common except a debt left behind by their dead husbands’ criminal activities. Set in contemporary Chicago, amid a time of turmoil, tensions build when Veronica (Oscar winner Viola Davis), Linda (Michelle Rodriguez), Alice (Elizabeth Debicki) and Belle (Cynthia Erivo) take their fate into their own hands and conspire to forge a future on their own terms.
The premise is based off a six-part British television show, which McQueen and “Gone Girl” and “Sharp Objects” writer Flynn have teamed up to adapt into a modern-day thriller.
Davis’ Veronica Rawlins character was originally written for a white woman.
“This kind of role isn’t usually out there for a woman of color,” Davis told Variety in a feature published Tuesday.
Check out the new “Widows” clip above.
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McQueen and Davis told Variety that the role of Veronica, a middle-aged woman dealing with a dead husband and son, had to be “retrofitted” to suit Davis.
“People try to be too nice with women. They keep them pretty. They keep them likable. They cater to male fantasies. They cater to the male gaze,” Davis said. “This film didn’t do that.”
Davis said the movie’s best example of this was McQueen’s choice to let the Oscar-winning actress wear her natural hair.
“I said, ‘Your own hair is beautiful ― just wear it that way.’ Veronica is a wash-and-go kind of girl,” McQueen recalled when Davis asked what kind of wig or extensions she should wear at the beginning of filming.
“You’re always taught as a person of color to not like your hair. The kinkier it is, the so-called nappier it is, the uglier it is,” she said.
“We’re into a zeitgeist where people are fighting for their space to be seen,” Davis continued. “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.”
Head over to Variety to read Davis’ full interview.
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