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For Viola Davis, Not Wearing a Wig for ‘Beautiful Creatures’ Was Liberating

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While promoting her latest film, Beautiful Creatures, Academy Award nominee Viola Davis spoke to Collider.com about not wearing a wig for this film, her other upcoming projects, including playing Terrence Howard‘s wife in Prisoners, and working with Harrison Ford in Ender’s Game.

A supernatural love story set in the South, Beautiful Creatures tells the tale of two star-crossed lovers: Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich), a young man longing to escape his small town, and Lena (Alice Englert), a mysterious new girl. Together, they uncover dark secrets about their respective families, their history and their town.

Why was this attractive to you? Why did you want to be in this movie?

DAVIS: It was attractive to me because, at first, I thought that she was just a regular woman, and then you peeled away the scars, and her being the keeper of this library, and her being able to channel spirits, and I liked that depth of character without beating someone over the head with it. It was that mysterious part of her. I like creating a rich inner life of a character because I sometimes feel like everybody wants to see everything played out on screen, in a way that’s very dramatic. I like an interesting inner life. I think it’s harder to play. I think it’s more challenging. That was the case with Amma. I loved it.

Was it liberating not to have to wear a wig for this character?

DAVIS: Yes, absolutely! The other day, I had to do a video thing and because I’m wearing my hair in this movie I’m doing now (Prisoners), I got a color job that fried my hair, so I was letting it rest. I braided it and put on a wig, for the first time in awhile, and I was like, “Ah!” Listen, I love my wigs. My daughter goes to my drawer and says, “Mommy, you wanna wear your wig?” But suddenly, it felt odd, in a way. Suddenly, it felt like I wasn’t being who I was. I’m still going to wear my wig, but I just think it’s interesting, at this time period, for me to just use it as an enhancement and not a crutch. That’s as much as I can say about it.

Read more: BlackFilm

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