Updated
Dec 14, 2020 Ma Rainey s Black Bottom Is Viola Davis At Her Most Exciting
Davis talks about her remarkable transformation, and how playing the title character was one of her biggest challenges yet.
In “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Viola Davis looks unlike any character we’ve ever seen her play. With thick makeup, gold teeth, heavy body pads and a period-accurate horsehair wig (which the actor says was unbelievably hot under the set lights), Davis embodies the famous titular blues singer, who was one of the most successful women in music recording in the 1920s.
When actors push and contort their physical appearance to unrecognizable limits, they often become favorites of the annual awards-season buzz machine. Prosthetics, heavy makeup (or no makeup at all), drastic weight gain or weight loss, and wigs all aid in this allure. If the sign of a great actor is their ability to disappear into a role, then these physical transformations, especially of actors whom we thi