Trending:
- Viola Davis reacts to being called “one of the greatest of all time” while speaking exclusively with PEOPLE at the Los Angeles premiere of G20 on March 27
- The actress says she sees her costars as “peers” and initially got into acting because she believes in the word “ensemble”
- Davis also opens up about how her role as a female president in G20 was “empowering” and “liberating”
For Viola Davis, acting is team effort — not a solo endeavor.
On Thursday, March 27, the 59-year-old actress stepped out to the Los Angeles premiere of G20 at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, and spoke to PEOPLE about her influence within the industry.
When asked how she helps make her costars feel at ease working alongside “one of the greatest of all time,” Davis promptly dismissed the distinction. “I’ll tell you how I deal with that: I don’t deal with that. I don’t feel like I’m the greatest of all time,” she says.
“I mean, I don’t have anything to do with how people see me, but when I come on a set, I see them as peers,” Davis continues. “I don’t feel like I’m the great Buddha, the great actress Buddha in the sky and you are all minions that have to learn from me. I learn from them and I really do believe that.”
The Air star — who is one of the few performers to achieve EGOT status, having won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and two Tonys — says she got into the entertainment business because she’s passionate about collaborating with others.
“I got into the business because I really believed even in that word ‘ensemble.’ So I think that’s what makes people feel comfortable with me,” she explains.
Davis’ latest film G20, which premieres on Prime Video on April 10, sees the star jumping into the action-thriller drama. She plays U.S. President Danielle Sutton, who must use both her military training and governing expertise “to protect her family, defend her country and safeguard world leaders” when the G20 Summit in South Africa is taken over by terrorists, per a synopsis for the film.
Davis tells PEOPLE that stepping into the role made her feel powerful and “capable.”
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“I love feeling like my body was capable as a woman, that it was every time you think about your body or look at your body as a woman, everything is about male desirability. That’s the only lens that you see in it,” she explains. “And you don’t see it in the lens of just being capable of protecting yourself, and it’s fun and it’s empowering and it’s liberating.”
Later, when introducing the film to the audience at the premiere, Davis elaborated, saying: “We wanted to make a film that showed that there is no limit, no obstacles in what I am capable of doing. As a woman, as a woman of color, and as a woman of a certain age, this is a testament to our ability.”
When G20 was announced earlier this year, director Patricia Riggen teased in a statement, “This is Viola Davis as you’ve never seen her — heroically kicking tons of ass in a global thrill ride.” The movie also stars Anthony Anderson, Marsai Martin, Antony Starr, Ramón Rodriguez, Douglas Hodge, Elizabeth Marvel, Sabrina Impacciatore and Christopher Farrar.
Back in January, Davis was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Gala ahead of the 2025 Golden Globes. In her emotional acceptance speech, which she dedicated to her younger self, she reflected on what inspired her to pursue an acting career.
“I think I decided to be an actor because acting was just a cosmic carrot for a much higher journey. A journey in finding me, finding a sense of belonging, finding my worth,” she said. “I was born into a life that just simply did not make sense. I didn’t fit in. I was born into abject poverty. I was mischievous. I was imaginative. I was rambunctious.”
She went on to explain that it was the “magic” inside her that propelled her ambitions.
“And you know what my magic was? That I could teleport. That I can take myself out of this worthless world and relieve myself of it at times,” Davis said. “I was curious and that’s how I started my journey.”
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