**Jennifer Lawrence is not someone who gets intimidated easily, but she ‘s awreck when meeting Viola Davis. “This is the biggest honor of my life,” shesays before paying her a heartfelt compliment. “Your performance in ‘Fences’changed my life,” she says of Davis’ Oscar-winning role opposite DenzelWashington. **
In the past decade, Lawrence and Davis have changed the face of movies, eachin her own way. Today, though, coming together to talk about their craft, theyrealize just how much they share. From stories about the highs and lows ofmotherhood to taking on an industry that believes male actors are a morevaluable commodity at the box office, Davis and Lawrence are trailblazers whostand at the top of their field.
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This year, both actors return to the awards conversation in passion projectsthey also produced. With “The Woman King,” Davis “did the weight training fivehours a day, six days a week, for three months at 56” in order to playNanisca, the leader of a group of all-female warriors in 1823 West Africa. ForLawrence, “Causeway,” in which she plays Lynsey, a soldier who comes home toNew Orleans after suffering a traumatic brain injury, represents a return toher indie roots.
Jennifer Lawrence : I think that “Woman King” is the best movie I’veseen this year, hands down, and the best movie I’ve seen in so long. I heardan interesting story about how it came to you.
Viola Davis: Maria Bello presented me with an award at Skirball Institute.And instead of presenting it traditionally, she pitched the idea of thismovie, which she’d written a treatment for and was shopping around town. Shesaid, “Wouldn’t everyone want to see Viola in ‘The Woman King’?” Everyonecheered. They stood up. And I remember that was the moment I thought tomyself, “Sit down. It’s just never going to happen.”
Story continues
Viola Davis and Jennifer Lawrence Variety Actors on Actors Cover 2022
Lawrence: And why did you think that?
Davis: What I have going for me is I’m a Black actress. And I understandhow people perceive that. I don’t see it as a hindrance. But when have I everseen anything like “Woman King,” not just with me in it, but with anyone wholooks like me in it? What studio is going to put money behind it? How are theygoing to be convinced that Black women can lead a global box office? So, yeah,I said, “That’s not going to happen, because you don’t see it.”
And, listen, it’s wonderful to sit with you. Because I see us as sort of thesame type of actress, in a way. We don’t look alike, I know that.
Lawrence: I don’t feel worthy to be in the same room as you, but pleasecontinue.
Davis: But I feel that what you bring to your performances is exactly whatan actor is supposed to bring, which is life. Which is the depth of humanexperience, the minutiae of it, the joy of it, the tragedy of it, the paradoxand contradiction of it in every moment. And that’s what you’re supposed to doas an actress. Yes, there is a technical proficiency aspect of acting. Butwith you, that’s what I see. And I think that’s why people are drawn to you.And I think that’s why people are moved by your performances.
Lawrence: Goodbye! I want to circle back to you being “The Woman King.” Iremember when I was doing “Hunger Games,” nobody ever had put a woman in thelead of an action movie because it wouldn’t work — because we were told girlsand boys can both identify with a male lead, but boys cannot identify with afemale lead. And it just makes me so happy every single time I see a moviecome out that just blows through every one of those beliefs, and proves thatit is just a lie to keep certain people out of the movies. To keep certainpeople in the same positions that they’ve always been in.
Davis: But how do you feel when you are doing the bigger tentpole movies?
Lawrence: When I was doing “X-Men,” it’s hard to not have that perceptionof the movie that’s like, “Oh, well, it’s just one of those.” Especially whenyou’re painted blue with scales on your face. If you start thinking, “I lookridiculous, I feel ridiculous,” there’s nowhere to go.
In “Hunger Games,” it was an awesome responsibility. Those books were huge,and I knew that the audience was children. I remember the biggest conversationwas “How much weight are you going to lose?” Along with me being young andgrowing and not able to be on a diet, I don’t know if I want all of the girlswho are going to dress up as Katniss to feel like they can’t because they’renot a certain weight. And I can’t let that seep into my brain either.
Davis: I want to know how much of the business has infiltrated your loveof the work.
Lawrence: I’ve been doing this since I was so young. When “Hunger Games”was out, I couldn’t really be an observer of life because everybody wasobserving me. I could feel my craft suffering. And I didn’t know how to fixit. I was scrambling, trying to fix it by saying yes to this movie and thentrying to counteract it with that movie. And not realizing that what I hadto do was no movies until something spoke to me.
When I read “Causeway,” I had no confidence in myself — I had no confidence inmy antenna. I had lost so much of what I used to feel was instinctual. And theproblem with instincts is it’s not a method you can fall back on.
Viola Davis Variety Actors on Actors
Davis: It’s interesting, especially what you say about instincts — thatthey don’t always work. But I have to say that the business is probably one ofthe biggest offenders of my love of the work. Because I don’t feel like I fitinto the business.
Lawrence: You went to Juilliard. Or used to be it Juilliard?
Davis: Yeah, Juliard. Or should I say the jail yard?
Lawrence: The jail yard!
Davis: With Juilliard, it was just about technical proficiency. It wasabout giving you all the building blocks to transform for classical work. Theonly problem with that is, first of all, I can safely say for you and formyself, no one wants to see a play or a movie and look at technicalproficiency; you want a human experience. You want to feel less alone. Theydon’t get at that.
When you’re rehearsing at Juilliard, they have a teacher with a pencil whofollows you through the rehearsal and puts the pencil in your mouth to seewhere your tongue is positioned. And so when it gets like that, and you leaveyourself and your soul behind, you’re not an artist.
And on top of that, it’s Eurocentric training. So when you’re studying allthose classics, it’s clear what all of those characters look like — and that’snot me. So then what am I supposed to do with me? What am I supposed to dowith my Blackness? What am I supposed to do with my deep voice and my widenose?
Lawrence: It’s interesting that you imply that you’re not beautiful whenI’m sitting next to somebody who’s beautiful and has a full mouth and a strongjaw and big, beautiful eyes and is tall and toned.
For my experience, the biggest hindrance to my craft has been press, doinginterviews. Every time I do an interview, I think, “I can’t do this to myselfagain.” I really can’t. I’m always very self-conscious of my intellect becauseI didn’t finish school. I dropped out of middle school.
Davis: You’re highly articulate.
Jennifer Lawrence Variety Actors on Actors
Lawrence: Thank you. And you’re very beautiful.
Davis: Thank you.
Lawrence: I don’t want anybody to know, or think they know, what I’mlike. I’m supposed to be a mirror. I’m supposed to be a vessel. You shouldn’tlook at me and remember that I got married in Rhode Island a few years ago andthat my husband’s an art dealer. I feel like I lose so much control over mycraft every time I have to do press for a movie and I’m sale this —especially something like “Causeway,” which just felt so personal.
Davis: I want to know about “Causeway.” I want to know what drew you tothe story, to the character.
Lawrence: I think in working through childhood trauma, living with it asan adult, not being able to just get rid of it, and not being able to take apill and make it go away, or have a good therapy session and have it go away .… I mean, I’m not a hero who’s risking my life to save my country at all; I’man actor. But when I read “Causeway,” even though the situations could not bemore different, the idea of carrying this invisible injury and knowing thatthe healing is not linear — there is so much progress and then there’s a stepback. And she has this very complicated relationship with home. I also had abeautiful childhood. I also had parents who loved me as much as they werecapable and did the absolute best that they could. That’s also true.
And I think that us being able to rip this story apart and me being able toadd some things that, if I can see another person going through it, and I canhave empathy for Lynsey, then I can start to understand how maybe I could feelempathy for myself. And so it really was such a healing process.
I think that’s why it’s still so hard for me to understand that people like it— just even that it’s a movie — because it was so personal for so long thatit’s just bizarre to be talking about it. [ Tears up ]
Davis: It’s supposed to be personal. Listen, everything that we do asactors helps people feel less alone. We’re living in a world now where we’reso disconnected from ourselves that we can’t connect with other people. Andthat’s because everybody is perpetrating a fraud. I mean everybody! I became amom. Every mom I’ve run into, all of their kids are gifted. None of their kidshave any issues. All of their kids come home with straight A’s. And I’m like,“Well, hell — really?”
Lawrence: I made the movie right before I got married. And then we had thepandemic. Two years later, I’m pregnant, we go back, and we make the rest ofit. It was the scariest thing in the entire world to think about making afamily. What if I fuck up? What if I can’t do it? And I was so scared that Iwould fuck it up. And it was so interesting to make a movie where I’m feelingso scared and feeling this mirrored in Lynsey.
Every day of being a mom, I feel awful. I feel guilty. I’m playing with himand I’m like, “Is this what he wants to be doing? Should we be outside? We’reoutside. What if he’s cold? What if he’s going to get sick? Should we beinside? Is this enough? Is this developing your brain enough?”
Davis: Jennifer, I locked my kid in the car, and it was sweltering hotoutside. I had 50 million things on my plate. My daughter was in the back.She’s happy, and I’m just so stressed out going to Target. I love Target. Iwalk out of the car, shut the door, and realize I don’t have my keys. I threwmyself on the concrete, Jennifer. I screamed. You would think I was in a Greektragedy. “ my baby! Jesus! And then I saw these two men. I grabbed theirnecks and said, “ My baby is in the car! my baby! ” And then what do Ihave in my hand? My phone. So the two men whose necks I’ve grabbed, they said,“Ma’am, you just have to call 911.” And I said, “Oh, OK.” So I called 911, andI proceeded to scream at the operator. Every expletive you can imagine cameout of my mouth.
They took her out of the car. And the reason why I’m telling you this story isit literally was seconds.
Lawrence: I drove around with mine, didn’t realize he wasn’t buckled intothe car seat. He was just teetering around, just flying. OK, great! Good toknow that we all almost killed our kids.
Davis: I love my daughter more than anything. She’s my life. So there yougo.
Set Design by Jack Flanagan
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