© 2018 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Not for sale or duplication.(LOS ANGELES) — Viola Davis is one of Hollywood’s A-list talents, but one of the roles that got her there is a role she now regrets.
Speaking with The New York Times while doing press for her new film, Widows, at the Toronto International Film Festival, Davis revealed she regrets her role as a maid in The Help.
The 2011 film, which earned Davis a Best Actress nomination, was the role that put her on the track to stardom. It was also criticized for having a white savior complex and not focusing on the stories of the film’s true heroes: its black characters.
“I just felt that at the end of the day that it wasn’t the voices of the maids that were heard. I know Aibileen. I know Minny,” Davis said, referring to the characters played by her and Octavia Spencer, respectively. “They’re my grandma. They’re my mom.”
Davis explained that although she enjoyed working with director Tate Taylor and her co-stars, she felt the film missed its mark.
“And I know that if you do a movie where the whole premise is, ‘I want to know what it feels like to work for white people and to bring up children in 1963,’ I want to hear how you really feel about it,” she said. “I never heard that in the course of the movie.”
Davis’ upcoming drama, Widows, which just premiered at TIFF, hits theaters November 16.
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