“I betrayed myself and my people.” Oscar winner still regrets one of her best movies

Viola Davis is a brilliant actress who has been nominated for an Oscar multiple times and won the award in 2017 for Fences. And while many artists regret certain roles in their lives, it's rarely those from their best films.

Davis, however, wan’t afraid to admit that she regrets her role in the production for which she received an Oscar nomination. That film is 2011's The Help. In an interview with The New York Times, the actress seems to agree with critics who point to the “white savior” narrative in The Help, a film that dealt with the racism faced by Black maids in 1963 Mississippi. Their story in the movie was told by a young white woman.

Viola Davis had a problem with the fact that the voices of Black women weren’t heard enough (via Filmstarts). In her opinion, although the film provides insight into certain experiences of Black Americans, the perspective from which they are told weakens the message and doesn’tt contribute to building greater understanding.

Despite this criticism, Viola Davis noted that she has fond memories of working on the film, especially in terms of the friendships and collaborators she had the opportunity to work with on The Help.

Two years later, in 2020, Viola Davis returned to the topic of The Help once again. She told Vanity Fair that by participating in the film, she felt as if she had “betrayed herself and her people.”

Bryce Dallas Howard, who also starred in The Help, agrees with Davis. In an interview with Vanity Fair, she said: „The Help is a fictional story told through the perspective of a white character and was created by predominantly white storytellers. We can all go further.”

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