Viola Davis Wants Her Own ‘Version’ of ‘Train to Busan’: I’d ‘Love to Do a Zombie Movie’
Viola Davis is detailing her next dream role: an undead thriller.
The EGOT winner and “Air” actress told IndieWire that she has her sights set on a “Train to Busan”-esque zombie film to conquer another onscreen genre.
“A lot of things I haven’t done in my career. Listen, I would love to do a zombie movie,” Davis said. “Now I say that, in shooting it, I don’t know if I can distinguish between the real and the fiction because if someone was running at me as a zombie, I don’t know. You might hear some stories. But I want a ‘Train to Busan.’ I want my version of ‘Train to Busan.’ I want to fight some zombies. That’s what I want to do.”
Davis was being honored at the 48th Annual Chaplin Gala, where Meryl Streep and Jessica Chastain were in attendance to fete the star. Davis addressed the changing state of Hollywood supporting women.
“I actually think that Hollywood tries in ways that probably most people don’t. I think they try to honor women and protect them, protecting their voice, protecting their bodies, protecting their comfort on sets,” Davis said. “I think they are really moving in the direction of helping children, child actors, be protected, creating an environment on the set. I know because I have to take the courses.”
Davis’ JuVee Productions company co-founder, film producer and husband Julius Tennon, agreed, saying, “It’s finding the allies and people who really believe all those things and really want to see effective change take place. It’s a process.”
The “Woman King” actress continued, “That’s what we can change, actually, allyship. It’s just supporting a group of people that aren’t like you. And there are a number of people that are disenfranchised just in this world and in this business, disabled, LGBTQ, certainly Black and brown people, that we can have more allyship in whatever form that looks like.”
Davis’ “The Help” co-star Jessica Chastain praised “The Woman King” for having “Viola’s fingerprints all over it” and being a beacon for onscreen representation.
“A movie like that with a female director and a cast of powerful Black female leads can get made in Hollywood today because of Viola’s lifelong advocacy for women of color,” Chastain said onstage. “Maybe one day a movie like that can get nominated for an Oscar.”
To IndieWire, Chastain gushed about Davis, saying, “Her professionalism was so upfront to me. ‘The Help’ was one of my very first jobs and she was just so keyed in. She gives everything. It’s so important to her what she’s working on, but she’s also really funny. The crew is important to her, other people are important to her. I continue to learn from her every day. She’s a phenomenal human being.”