Viola Davis reflected on playing a bisexual blues singer and working with the late Chadwick Boseman in
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
The Oscar, Tony and Emmy-winning actor plays the “Mother of the Blues”, legendary singer Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey, in the eagerly-anticipated Netlix film.
Rainey is a serious, determined and sometimes difficult Black woman, something Davis said is unusual to find on film.
“We’re so used to seeing Black characters defined by white people,” she told the
“And when they’re defined by white people, their voice gets taken away, their sexuality gets taken away.
“They are defined in the image of – take what I’m about to say with a grain of salt – but I’m gonna say it, they are defined in the mind-set of the oppressor.”
Viola Davis discusses role as Ma Rainey
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Ma Rainey s Unapologetic Queerness Shines in George C Wolfe s New Film
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“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” was August Wilson’s first play to hit Broadway. Now it’s his second to become a feature film. The Pittsburgh-born playwright’s namesake August Wilson Center for African American Culture marks the occasion with a virtual panel discussion featuring some of the new film’s distinguished creative team. Ma Rainey Redux Part II virtual panel discussion: 7 p.m. Fri., Dec. 18
The panel on Fri., Dec. 18 – the same day the film premieres on Netflix – includes director and Broadway veteran George C. Wolfe; the film’s screenwriter, the actor and Wilson collaborator Ruben Santiago-Hudson; and Constanza Romero, Wilson’s widow and the film’s executive producer. Moderator Jessica Lanay, the Center’s literary curator, says Wilson’s drama illuminates the little-known roots of American popular culture.