Viola Davis was the subject of a recent Vanity Fair feature and expressed how disappointed she is in her role on The Help. Released in 2011, The Help was a box office success and was nominated for Best Picture, but the film was met with sharp criticism the moment it hit theaters. According to Davis, the film ultimately undermined the objective it set out to meet.
“They’re invested in the idea of what it means to be Black, but…it’s catering to the white audience,” said Davis. “The white audience at the most can sit and get an academic lesson into how we are. Then they leave the movie theater and they talk about what it meant. They’re not moved by who we were.”
“There’s no one who’s not entertained by The Help. But there’s a part of me that feels like I betrayed myself, and my people, because I was in a movie that wasn’t ready to [tell the whole truth],” Davis continued. She also noted that The Help was “created in the filter and the cesspool of systemic racism.”
Source: vanityfair.com
