Viola Davis can make the person listening more interesting than the person talking. We value her patience and scepticism most; her broader villains are enjoyable, but they are not where we would start.
Fi1m perspective
In Air (2023), Viola Davis sits opposite Matt Damon and lets him talk. As Deloris Jordan, she appears to believe about half of what she hears, and we can follow the calculation without a speech explaining it. We took particular pleasure in her patience: she lets the salesman finish without giving him the satisfaction of seeming persuaded. Ben Affleck's film too readily accepts the corporation's account of itself, but Davis gives its conversations a useful note of doubt.
Her Moselle already made a small part count in Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight (1998). The ensemble has plenty of actors worth watching, and Davis needs little time to register. Soderbergh gives her a sterner task in Solaris (2002): Gordon wants the problem solved by whatever means are available, and Davis does not soften once. Her firmness is useful in a film where so many of the other performances are hesitant and troubled.
Doubt (2008) brought the breakthrough, with Davis playing Mrs Miller opposite Meryl Streep. The larger dramatic parts followed, including Rose Maxson in Fences (2016), adapted from August Wilson's play and directed by her co-star Denzel Washington. By The Woman King (2022), she was carrying a historical action drama in the physically demanding role of Nanisca. Those changes in scale matter, but the early films already show an actor who does not need the largest part to make an impression.
The franchise work gives her more licence to be amused by other people's discomfort. In The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023), Dr Gaul is a scientist cheerfully finished with any concern for other people. Davis makes that cheerfulness unpleasant, which is exactly what the part needs. As the voice of the Chameleon in Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024), she speaks low and slowly while the animators ripple and reshape her scales. The threat and the joke work together, but the surrounding film lacks the feeling that might make its fights matter.
We would not recommend a film merely because she is in it. We would start with Air for the pleasure of watching her listen, then Solaris for a performance that makes no concessions to being liked. The animated sorceress can wait.
Biography
Viola Davis is an American actress and producer. She was born on 11 August 1965 in St Matthews, South Carolina, and trained at the Juilliard School.
Davis began her career in theatre, making her Broadway debut in the August Wilson play Seven Guitars (1996). She won Tony Awards for her performances in Wilson plays King Hedley II (2001) and Fences (2010). Her film roles include Out of Sight (1998), Solaris (2002), Doubt (2008), The Help (2011), Fences (2016), Air (2023) and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023). She voiced The Chameleon in Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024).
On television, Davis starred as Annalise Keating in How to Get Away with Murder (2014–2020). She is one of few performers to achieve the EGOT.
