Viola Davis has said she feels like she ''betrayed'' herself with her role in The Help because the 2011 film didn't ''tell the whole truth''.
The 54-year-old Academy Award-winner, who played maid Aibileen Clark in the film written and directed by Tate Taylor, and was based on Kathryn Stockett's 2009 novel of the same name, believes the movie should have explored black characters in a deeper way.
The period drama, which also starred Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone, and Jessica Chastain, followed a racially segregated Mississippi town during the Civil Rights Movement.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, Davis said the humorous tone did not allow for it to treat its Black characters with the humanity they deserved.
"Not a lot of narratives are also invested in our humanity," she said.
"They're invested in the idea of what it means to be Black, but… it's catering to the white audience.
"The white audience at the most can sit and get an academic lesson into how we are. Then they leave the movie theatre and they talk about what it meant. They're not moved by who we were."
She added: "There's no-one who's not entertained by The Help. But there's a part of me that feels like I betrayed myself, and my people, because I was in a movie that wasn't ready to [tell the actual story]."
Davis made history on Vanity Fair's latest issue, with the cover shot by a Black photographer for the first time ever.
Dario Calmese photographed the actress for the cover of the July/August 2020 issue.
Presenting our July/August cover star: @ViolaDavis. The Oscar winner—who's set to star as Michelle Obama and blues legend Ma Rainey—talks to @SoniaSaraiya about her journey out of poverty and into the deeply troubling Hollywood system. https://t.co/NKm0nGeSbP pic.twitter.com/8QlGbh3OTS
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) July 14, 2020
