There is a good reason stunt people exist, as they can properly perform certain scenes without risk of injury for the actors. Sometimes, you just have to get the actors to do what they are willing or able to do. For Viola Davis in The Woman King, the action was so difficult that she thought she might not be able to do it and needed to be replaced. In an interview with Collider, she opened up about the brutal production of the film that was released today (September 16).
In film production, some scenes are repeatedly done until it is done perfectly dozens of times. It can be a seemingly endless task to repeat something until the director is satisfied. For Viola Davis, in one battle in The Woman King, she had to flip a man about “20 times.” Doing that over and over got her to the point of rethinking if she could do the film.
Viola Davis struggled with the action scenes in The Woman King
Performing intense choreography helps when you’re young, like seeing Tom Holland in Uncharted or Spider-Man, or Amber Midthunder in Prey. As their bodies can recover quicker after hours of working on the same scene, it primes them for films like this. However, for the actress, at 57 years old, it was another story. When Collider’s Steve Weintraub brought up Liam Neeson going down an action-heavy road as he got older, the actress talked about her respect for him and how much easier it is to perform movies like this when you are in your 20s.
Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Old Guard) directed the film. Dana Stevens (Fatherhood) penned the script. The Woman King is led by Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu (The Underground Railroad), Lashana Lynch (No Time to Die), and John Boyega. The film is currently out in theaters.
