Viola Davis: Making Mrs. Miller in Doubt By Terry Keefe [Note: This article will appear in this month's issue of Venice Magazine. Pictured above is actress Viola Davis in her role as Mrs. Miller in Doubt.]
One scene can make a star out of a rising actor, although it’s a rare occurrence. Particularly when that scene is opposite the likes of Meryl Streep, who is certainly difficult to outshine. But Viola Davis is going to attract a great deal of notice for her relatively brief appearance in Doubt, to the point where she is already being mentioned as a likely candidate for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. Davis, who plays the character of Mrs. Miller, is only in the film for an extended scene with Streep, and then makes a dialogue-free appearance in the ending. But her scene with Streep, who plays the strong-willed nun Sister Aloysius, is powerhouse acting defined, particularly so since Davis performs it throughout with a quiet intensity in which she effectively manages to scream at times without raising her voice.
Doubt, written and directed by John Patrick Shanley, who adapted from his Tony-winning play, is set in 1964, in the St. Nicholas Catholic School in the Bronx. A young, charismatic, and progressive priest named Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) has come at odds with the strict traditionalist Sister Aloysius, who is opposed to change as a general concept. But change is in the air nonetheless, personified by new student Donald Miller (Joseph Foster II), the school’s first African-American boy to attend. The true battle between Father Flynn and Sister Aloysius begins when a younger nun, Sister James (Amy Adams), shares with Sister Aloysius her suspicions that an improper relationship is occurring between Father Flynn and young Donald Miller. Although she has no real proof at all, Sister Aloysius becomes fully convinced that Father Flynn is guilty and sets out to destroy him. Although Father Flynn may well be innocent, Sister Aloysius has no doubt whatsoever of the moral certitude of her quest.
However, she doesn’t find the ally in Donald’s mother, Mrs. Miller, that she expected. (Note that there are SPOILERS ahead, as it is impossible to discuss this scene fully without revealing some key plot points). Mrs. Miller ultimately reveals that she believes her son may be gay, and that she also believes that the best thing for him would be to stay in the school. Donald’s father is apparently physically abusive of the boy, and if he ever found out that his son was having a relationship with the priest, Donald’s life would be in danger. As a black woman in the early 60s with little social standing, Mrs. Miller is not in a position of power with Sister Aloysius, but she must somehow convince her to leave the matter alone, because staying at the school is the lesser of two evils for her son, who she loves very much. As Mrs. Miller, Viola Davis embodies the pain of this horrible choice she must make in every gesture. The diplomatic manner she takes on to convince Sister Aloysius to back off is difficult to watch, but equally powerful.
Davis previously was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her work in Antwone Fisher, and was also very memorable playing the housekeeper Sybil in Todd Haynes’ Douglas Sirk-inspired Far From Heaven. She has already conquered Broadway, having won a Tony for her work in August Wilson’s “King Hedley II.”
In crafting your performance, how much backstory did you create for Mrs. Miller, other than what was on the page?
Viola Davis: I created a bio that was more than 50 pages, which I wrote on her, her son Donald, and the dad. I wrote until I couldn’t write any more, because when you have just one scene in a movie….you have to come in with so much life already for that character, because, if you don’t, you’ll end up looking like you’re working too hard in that scene.
Did those 50 pages come out of research done by talking to people who had been through similar situations as Mrs. Miller?
Yep, I spoke with people who had been in similar situations. But when I say similar situations, I’m talking about women who had to be the advocate for somebody they loved, and women who were born in circumstances where they didn’t have a lot of options, where they were at the end of their rope, at the end of the road, and they basically had to beg for certain things. There were stories from my mom, which I had heard growing up. About how she was my advocate, and the advocate of my siblings.
Mrs. Miller has to push for what is right for Donald in that scene with Sister Aloysius, not so much in a rigid sense of right or wrong, but what is right relative to these particular circumstances.
Absolutely. It’s like they say in marriage counseling, not that I’ve been in marriage counseling but I’ve seen this on a show about marriage counseling, “Do you want to be right, or do you want your relationship to work out?” And here, in this scene, it’s like, “Do you want to be right, or do you want to save your child?” Remember that this is not a progressive woman. She’s just not. She is horrified by what may be happening. She’s not happy with it. But she loves her son, and she has weighed the two options. Because she believes that if you go to your grave and you are successful at everything else, other than being a mother, than you have failed.
Your dialogue about the father is so well-written, and performed, that I can practically see him in this scene. He lingers over it, although the audience never does meet him.
And she really doesn’t say a whole lot about him either. She doesn’t talk about where he works or how he looks. It’s just one or two lines. It’s so minimalist. So, it doesn’t take a lot of words, but it does take a lot of embodiment, because if you embody that life to begin with, that’s when the language comes to life.
As a performer, you had the pressure of having your character come in half-way through the film, after we’ve already gotten to know the characters of Phil, Meryl, and Amy very well, powerhouse actors all of them, and having to carry the bulk of one of the most pivotal scenes in the story.
Yes, although that would probably be a better question for Adrian Lenox [who played the role on Broadway], because she had a harder job to do in terms of that. Because she had to sit around for a lot of the play, until her scene came along. With me, I just came in on my day to shoot. I was like my character, I came in on the day I was called to the principal’s office. And it’s not difficult if you just play the scene. See, that’s your job – just to play the scene. You can’t think of anything else. You can’t think, “Okay, I’ve got 7 minutes of screen time, so I have to make the most of it.” Or “I have to be an advocate for gay rights.” Or “I’ve got to be the black woman.” You can’t do that. You’ve got to take all of that and throw it out the window, and you’ve got to play the scene. And what the scene is about is this: she loves her son; she’s terrified she’s a bad mother; and she wants him to survive. That’s it.
Her costuming is notable in highlighting the way she had to fit into the white person’s world. Her outfit is sensible, nice, but not too flashy.
There’s a formality to it, which was great because it reminded me of how people were very aware of how they came off in those days. They were aware of being polite. It reminded me to be polite as the character, because she’s talking with a white woman who is also a nun. Because I think that if I had come in wearing jeans or something, it would have given her a casualness which had nothing to do with the scene.
She’s also very formal in how she reveals her belief that her son is gay. She makes the decision to reveal this, but it is in almost as polite a manner as the rest of the conversation. That adds a whole new layer of tension to the scene, because it’s also obvious that she’s in agony having to speak about this.
Absolutely. She has to do it that way. I think when you come in and scream and yell about something, the other person ceases to hear you. I know that when people yell at me, I put up a wall automatically. And in this scene, I have to appeal to her heart. I know this woman has the power to make or break my son.
Let’s talk about your background a bit. You were born in South Carolina, and then moved to Rhode Island.
I was born in Saint Matthews, South Carolina in my grandmother’s house. My grandmother delivered me, because the midwife was late, as my mom put it. And Central Falls, Rhode Island, was very different from South Carolina. There were not a lot of African-Americans there at the time. Today, it’s much more racially mixed. And so, we were on the periphery there for a while, sort of fighting to get in. At the same time, it was also a fantastic place with small town values. I have memories of apple-picking, and going to the reservoirs, and parks. It was idyllic, in a huge sense, and in another sense, I was very much feeling like an outsider. We grew up poor. My father groomed and trained horses at a race track. So, that was my childhood. A childhood of very much feeling like an outsider, but also having real moments of pure joy and happiness.
Recently, you worked on the new Tyler Perry film, Madea Goes to Jail.
That’s going to give me incredible street cred with my nieces and nephews [laughs]. You know, there was a woman at my dad’s funeral and she prophesied for people. She was kind of a psychic. And my mom said to me, “You have to meet her, because she has something to say to you.” And I went, “Oh no. I can’t take it. I don’t want to know my future.” Anyway, I met her and she took my hand and she said, “Tyler Perry is going to offer you a movie, and do not turn it down.” I was thinking, “Of all the things you could have said to me. [laughs] You could have told me that one day I’m going to see God, and you told me that Tyler Perry is going to offer me a movie.” And sure enough, two years later, Tyler Perry offered me a role in a movie. I didn’t turn it down.
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