That's what it feels like when you're constantly explaining yourself.
By the time you get to the script, you’re just mad.
You're just mad because by the time you get to the script, you feel wrong.
And you cannot feel wrong when you get to
to the actual work because you are the palette.
I want to start with you, Viola.
I know it took seven years to make this film,
and I just wanted to ask, like, what kept you going in that process?
And I'm pretty sure that it was difficult to go into those rooms
and having to fight for this story about you,
essentially about women who look like you and getting those and how you maintained
your essentially self worth in all of that.
What kept me going is the fact that this is a great story and a great script,
and I knew what it would mean if I put it out there in the world.
That's what kept me going.
You know what people don't understand about this business
because we're in the business of
making movies and other people are in the business of watching movies.
And when you're in the business of making movies and you're an actor,
you understand how rare and I will repeat it rare
it is to get a great role. It is as rare as finding a diamond in the rough.
Seriously, the kind of fights that you have to have in a room,
the kind of stories everybody wants to see, listen, we want to see them, too.
But how hard it is just to get a green light vote.
And so when you stumble upon something that already exists, that's great,
you don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
What you do is you strap on really tight and you tap into that warrior spirit,
that artistic warrior spirit, and you fight for it
because every single
every single step, you open another door
and then maybe it lies dormant for another year or two.
And then you hit another door, and then that opens.
And every door that opens gives you hope.
Hope as an artist.
Hope as a black female artist.
So that's what kept me going.
When I watched this film,
I felt
like the potential to be powerful, and I think that just speaks volumes
about just the representation and just your performances.
On The Woman King I know that the director is a black woman
and you had so many like black women and people of colour around you.
So I kind of wanted to know what that felt like and how that impacted your performance.
It was -- it was incredible just exactly what you said.
We had Gina, who
being a black woman, was able to hire black women.
The HODs for each department were
black women.
And it meant that the shorthand that we don't often get as women
and as black women in the industry, having to have the conversations,
difficult conversations about hair and makeup and costume and
and body shape and, you know, things that make us all feel uncomfortable.
We're already half done.
You know, we could just come in as actors and be collaborative
and really express our opinions and have them be heard
and then have them appear on screen and have them in the edit.
All of those things are really important and that's possible
because Gina and Viola and everyone involved
made sure that we had an environment that we felt safe and comfortable
to be free and ourselves in. And in us being as authentic as we can be,
we were able to bring that authenticity to screen.
It was a case of feeling safe,
you know, like in every sense of the word,
we’re feeling safe, seen and understood.
You know, there was a care that Gina put into it.
I never felt unsafe, unsupported, because of who Gina was.
Gina as a director who went on, you know, days where I felt a little low
and I would withdraw at the end of the day,
I would get a text from her asking, “Are you okay?”
“Let me know if you need anything. I'm here for you.”
That was the set
in which we found ourselves.
For me, I want to create a space where you feel safe enough to give me everything.
And then I cast my crew in the same way that I cast my actors.
I want to create an environment.
I want people that believe in the vision, that will do everything they can to help
me realise the vision, that understand
and respect my respect for actors
and who are good people.
You know, you just want a good, safe environment.
And I've been really fortunate to be able
to just have incredible people.
The majority of my crew are women and people of colour.
In terms of the department heads. That sets the tone,
but it's also a group of people who are hungry
to prove themselves because we often have shorter resumes,
but not because of talent, but just because of opportunity.
So people like Terilyn Shropshire, my incredible editor,
Polly Morgan, the DP, Gersha Phillips,
who did our incredible costume, Akin McKenzie.
None of them have had big movies on their resumes until now, but again,
I believed them when they said what they wanted to bring and their passion.
And the actors feel that.
You just didn't have to explain yourself. You didn’t have to
explain the width of your thighs and your
you know, you did not have to explain your hair
and how it needed to be braided and how it doesn't
take certain products or how long it takes to be braided.
You didn't have to explain your skin.
You didn't have to explain lighting.
You know, that's what it meant.
Because a lot of times when you have to wade through that sludge,
I sort of compare it to cooking.
When you have to cook everything for a whole bunch of people,
then it comes down to sitting down and eating the meal
you have no appetite.
That's what it feels like when you're constantly explaining yourself.
By the time you get to the script, you're just mad.
You're just mad because by the time you get to the script, you feel wrong.
And you cannot feel wrong when you get to
to the actual work because you are the palette.
So that's how it felt. It felt like freedom.
But there's a lot that comes with it and that's not easy.
And as everyone knows, this is a very, very unique experience
having black women in front and a lot of women in front and behind the camera.
So whilst I’m grateful for the experience, it's
a reminder of how rare this is and that we can celebrate this, yes
as a singular entity. But then going forward,
it would be a shame to have it as business as usual.
For me, it was such a rare experience seeing kind of black women
with one another and communing and just having these
just relationships where you challenge each other, we affirm each other,
where you take on responsibility for each other, as well as being
just... It was just intimate and wonderful to see.
I kind of-- and it was so obvious that you guys have strong
relationships off-set because to have that level
of chemistry on screen is just wow.
A lot of the connecting happened through the work, to be honest.
It was such an intense shoot
and the
space and time for social interaction
outside of it was not really there.
So it was a really great thing
that we were able to bond through
our collective passion for this project.
We all knew what it meant.
We all knew how important it was.
We were all very aligned on the priorities in terms of the things
that were important to us to make sure were honoured and
you know, pushed to the forefront and were given the most attention.
And, of course, you know, that would differ or at least have its
specificities for each character and each person within the team.
But in the general sense, we were all pulling in the same direction.
And then I think we were all very aware of the fact that, you know, what
Lashana just spoke about and the question that you asked before that
this was
at the moment a unique-ish experience,
hopefully not going forwards. But we knew that we were, you know,
all very lucky to be in that position where everything aligned for this project
to be made, for our schedules, to be clear, for us
as people to all be in the same space making this story happen.
So I think a balance of that plus really
just wanting to do right by the project, wanting to do right by ourselves,
wanting to do right by each other, I think was how that bond built.
I wanted to know from your perspective, if you feel a sense of pressure
or responsibility and how you kind of counter that and keep
yourself mentally healthy in that process?
Yeah, going into every film, there's enormous pressure. Going into this one,
it was extraordinary pressure
because I knew what this film meant
and what it could mean for the industry, what it could mean for these actors.
But I embraced that pressure.
You have to, because if you don't embrace it, then it's going to sink you.
But it never left my mind.
But again, it just pushed me to work harder.