Viola Davis has some regrets when it comes to her role in The Help

Viola Davis might have been nominated for an Oscar thanks to her role in The Help, but that doesn’t mean the actress doesn’t have some regrets about it.

In an interview with the New York Times, Viola Davis had the chance to share some of the roles that she has regretted taking on in the past. Unfortunately, for fans of The Help, it seems that the movie and her role as Aibileen Clark make the list.

While there may be some regret when it comes to The Help, Davis made it clear right away that she did not regret, “the experience and the people involved because they were all great. The friendships that I formed are ones that I’m going to have for the rest of my life.” The actress also shared that Tate Taylor, the director of the film, was great to collaborate with.

While the experience itself and the people she worked with might have been wonderful, what Viola Davis regrets is that “it wasn’t the voices of the maids that were heard.” She explained that on a personal level, she knows women like Aibileen and Minny. Davis explained this by saying that for her, “They’re my grandma. They’re my mom.”

The entire premise of The Help is to hear what it was like for these women who were working for white people in the early 1960’s, all while still trying to raise their own own families. Essentially, we want to hear the voices of Minny and Aibileen. But for Viola Davis, that never really happened.

According to Davis, even though the entire focus of the movie was on hearing how these women felt and learning what their lives were like, she “never heard that in the course of the movie.”

Although Viola Davis made it clear that her regret with The Help lies more in the voices she feels should have been better represented over the experience as a whole, it is disappointing to learn that the actress has regrets over the movie. Entertainment Weekly even reached out to director Tate Taylor and Disney, as well as Davis herself, but no further comments have been made at this time.

It is understandable that Davis would regret the fact that The Help did not do a better job at giving more of a voice to the women that deserved it. However, one could argue the book that the movie was based on chose to use a white voice to give all these women a voice that would otherwise not have been heard. Either way, the actress has every right to feel as if the women who were supposed to be given a voice were not.

Considering The Help was released in 2011, the film was certainly a game changer at the time it was released (even if that was just seven years ago). However, in 2018, the movie does not hold up in terms of giving voice to the people it needs to.

How do you feel about Viola Davis’ comments on The Help? Do you agree that it did not give a voice to the women it should have?