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00:00My husband and kids are missing. We have to find them.
00:03If you want to live, you'll follow my lead.
00:05Now your cap's in America.
00:20That was quite, uh, well done.
00:22My name is Oakley Jones, entertainment editor with Essence,
00:31and today I'm speaking to the amazing Viola Davis.
00:33How you doing, Miss Davis?
00:35Hello. That's a beautiful name.
00:37Thank you. I appreciate you. It's a pleasure to be speaking with you today.
00:40In the film, your character is a fierce leader,
00:42but she's also a loving mother of two very different children.
00:47How did you tap into the push and pull of those relationships,
00:50especially with your daughter?
00:52Well, you know, I have a teenager at home.
00:56So, um, I just felt like that was sort of, um, the nucleus of that character,
01:02because I think that that is a,
01:05I think that that's something that a lot of women have to juggle.
01:09How to sort of satisfy your career needs, your dreams, your goals,
01:15and then how to be a mom, right?
01:19And they're always in direct conflict with each other
01:23because at the end of the day, you're just not going to have balance.
01:27You're just not, it's, it's not possible.
01:30And, um, so I literally, that's my life,
01:35balancing being the mother of Genesis Tenen and being an actress in Hollywood
01:42and sort of giving myself grace,
01:46forgiving myself, um, and knowing that I just can't do it beautifully.
01:52I think that that was a huge arc of playing Danielle Sutton.
01:57Yeah.
01:59Actually glad you brought up the juggling aspect,
02:01because that was my next question about, um, the role of Danielle,
02:04how she, uh, juggles the leadership, motherhood and survival.
02:08Um, you said it, it has a lot of parallels to your life.
02:12Were there any moments on set that really hit home for you emotionally at all?
02:16Yes.
02:18The, I think there's a couple of them,
02:21but I would say the first one is when she has the moment
02:25where she remembers how she became this war hero.
02:30When she found this young boy who was in an explosion after an IED
02:36and she brought him to safety.
02:39But what she really remembered is, you know, um, the mom,
02:44she had to pry the little boy out of the mom's arms.
02:48And for me, that was really, that for me was pivotal in the character
02:54because it was the imposter syndrome.
02:56What we do as actors, we have to show human life.
03:00It's not, it's not having any editorial about human life.
03:04You have to just show it as messy as, as, you know, as messy as it is.
03:11And for me, that was interesting because no matter what,
03:16I don't care if you are the leader of the free world,
03:19you're still a human being and you're still motivated by memories, by insecurities.
03:26Um, and it is how you handle them that is heroic.
03:32It's how you handle those moments of feeling like you can't do it.
03:38And that journey you take in believing that you can, that is, that is interesting.
03:45And, um, I think that was one of the moments that actually made me want to do it.
03:51This movie.
03:52Now, I really enjoyed the, uh, dynamic of the Sutton family.
03:56And they were all strong in their own special ways.
03:59How important was it for you to show a powerful, unified black family on screen?
04:04Always, you know, that's our legacy at Juvie Productions.
04:07It's a part of our legacy to show the broad spectrum of humanity
04:12and to show that, you know, I, I, I've said this story ad nauseum,
04:17you know, my daughter, since she was four, five years old, maybe even younger,
04:22you know, when I would tell her stories at night and I would make them up
04:26and I would make them as elaborate as possible.
04:29There would be slingshots and giants and, and flying.
04:34And she would always stop me and take her baba out of her mouth,
04:37even like when she was really, really young and say, mama, put me in the story.
04:42I want to be that.
04:43I want to be in the story.
04:44We want to be in the story.
04:48We want to, we, we, our imagination is limitless.
04:54And I want that as part as a part of Juvie's legacy and storytelling
05:00to always put people of color in the story.
05:04We are a vast people and, and it's who I am.
05:11You know, it's, I feel like it's my job, my purpose.
05:17Miss Davis, thank you so much.
05:18I really appreciate this amazing film.