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After making an award-winning career out of mostly dramatic roles, Viola Davis is ready to grab her metaphorical bullwhip and fedora and get her Indiana Jones on.
The Oscar-winner tells Entertainment Weekly she had a blast channeling iconic action heroes like Harrison Ford's Nazi-punching archeologist in G20, her new action-packed thriller from director Patricia Riggen.
Davis plays Danielle Sutton, the current president of the United States and former military veteran who saves the day when the G20 summit in Cape Town comes under siege. Davis says the film “harkened back to all the movies” and heroes that made her fall in love with acting in the first place: "Sigourney Weaver in Alien, Harrison Ford in Air Force One, Bruce Willis in Die Hard. I wanted to be the hero in the story. I wanted to be Indiana Jones."
When producer Andrew Lazar first presented her with the script in 2015, Davis "couldn't believe" that he and the other creatives "saw me in it as this central figure hero." She adds, "I am seeing myself way more expansively now that I've been liberated from the definitions of the world. I wanted to put this out in the world for my daughter."
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Ilze Kitshoff/Prime
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Davis, who also produced the feature alongside husband and producing partner Julius Tennon, plays a formidable U.S. president who must defend not just her fellow world leaders but also her family — husband Derek (Anthony Anderson) and children Serena (Marsai Martin) and Demetrius (Christopher Farrar) — when a group of crypto bros led by the volatile Rutledge (The Boys' Antony Starr) take the politicians hostage as part of a ploy to destabilize the world economy.
"Playing a leader requires negotiating with yourself emotionally [and] intellectually because it's not about you," Davis shares. "You are the one who has to jump through the plate of glass first. I found that to be the hardest thing to play as the president of the U.S. How do you save the world and then save your children and your husband when you are saturated with fear?"
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Nail-biting fight sequences punctuate the thriller, but there was zero trepidation on The Woman King's part to do the stunts herself. "I did almost all of it, believe it or not. I'm a masochist," she says. "I needed some fun at this point in my life."
The star cites a gruesome fight sequence set in a kitchen as particularly satisfying to her inner child. "Maybe it's the frying pan and knocking someone over the head," she says. "Little Viola had the most fun. I always wanted to play with the biggest boys and pretend to take them down. I was that kid. I wasn't afraid. Everything else seemed boring to me."
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Prime Video
"One thing that people don't understand when you've been in the business a long time is that you can forget the fun," Davis adds. "You can forget the fun of play and pretend, and it reminded me of why I fell in love with it."
As for whether there's a possibility for a sequel (Indiana Jones had five, after all), Davis isn't opposed to one — but don't expect to see Madame President Sutton in it. "I'm just one of those people [that] when I do a movie, I'm done with it," she says. "I think Denzel [Washington, as if this needed clarifying] said that once in an interview, too. It's like, what is your favorite movie? I'm like, it's my next one."
But Davis has some solid sequel ideas. "Maybe now Serena is the president, [and] she's in danger," she says of her onscreen daughter. "Who knows? I'm sure the audience will come up with all kinds of scenarios." As for Davis, she'll be riding "into the sunset on a horse with some French fries."
G20 debuts on April 10 on Prime Video.