Viola Davis calls ‘The Woman King’ her ‘magnum opus’ at TIFF premiere

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The film, which opens September 16, is inspired by the true story of a group of women warriors who protected the African kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s. Davis, 57, leads the contingent of fighters who influenced the Dora Milaje in Black Pantherlike the fearsome General Nanisca.

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« This movie is for risk takers, » an emotional Davis told the nearly sold-out crowd at Roy Thomson Hall. « This movie is for the people who maybe even the naysayers – who never believed that a black woman, especially dark-skinned women, could lead a global box office. »

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Directed and co-written by Gina Prince-Bythewood (The old guard), the co-stars of the film Lashana Lynch (Captain Marvel) and John Boyega (star wars), who said the project is « a call to action. »

But it was Davis who garnered the most cheers during his impassioned introduction and post-screening Q&A.

“I feel like my whole life I’ve let myself be defined by a culture. I’ve let myself be defined by the naysayers. I’m in a profession that’s defined by deprivation,” she said. A lot of times you just allow others to define you and at 56 I realized I could define myself. »

She also said she wanted her fearless performance to be an inspiration to young black women.

« I want to do for young black girls what Miss [Cecily] Tyson did it for me when I was seven,” Davis said. “She was the physical manifestation of the dream, and she came to me through a broken television set in a rundown apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island. What she delivered to me is something that cannot be quantified with words.