Viola Davis stars as a formidable American president in the Amazon Prime action-thriller G20. Amidst a G20 Summit terrorist attack, Davis’ character showcases a powerful blend of leadership and martial expertise, solidifying her status as a versatile acting powerhouse. Let’s take a look at Davis’ gripping performance and celebrated acting career.
Insights: Notes From Viola Davis
- Develop a compelling presence that adds weight to authoritative roles.
- Hone physical skills to bring authenticity to action-heavy performances.
- Pursue a wide range of characters to build a dynamic and long-lasting career.
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The Snapshot: Viola Davis’ Role in G20
During a meeting of the G20 nations in South Africa, a terrorist attack leads the American president (Viola Davis) to take matters into her own hands and save the day.
Viola Davis’ Performance in G20
Not everyone can play the president of the United States. There’s a certain amount of gravitas required for the job — at least in movies — regardless of their gender or the color of their skin. It’s why Michael Douglas was so good at it in The American President and Dennis Haysbert in 24.
It’s also why casting Oscar and Emmy winner Viola Davis was a no-brainer. The woman exudes gravitas. She personifies it. It’s a big part of her appeal and is one of the reasons why she is so revered. Not everyone possesses such a force about them. They can look for it, they can try to get it, but they are almost always unsuccessful. When it comes to gravitas, the simple truth is that you either have it or you don’t.
Davis has it, so of course, she can believably play the president of the United States.
With the silly Prime Video action movie G20, though, it’s not just about having gravitas. Glenn Close has gravitas, and she couldn’t play this part. Neither could Meryl Streep (not anymore, at least). There’s an added aspect to President Danielle Sutton that you don’t normally find in a female president: she’s an ass-kicker. That’s not a figurative moniker, either. She runs roughshod over Congress and kicks ass politically and physically. She’s a military veteran, a student of martial arts and a genuine action hero.
To be fair, there aren’t a lot of male presidents who can pull that off, either (Harrison Ford in Air Force One is the clear exception), but that makes Danielle Sutton that much more impressive.
The way G20 breaks down is that Sutton has a plan that will empower sub-Saharan African farmers with access to digital currency, which she presents at a summit with the other G20 nations in Cape Town, South Africa. When mercenaries attack the summit and take the leaders of the other nations hostage, Sutton escapes with a few others and wreaks havoc behind the scenes, while trying to rescue her fellow leaders, her husband and two teenage children, all of whom are also under siege.
The movie itself is fun in a silly and stupid sort of way. There’s a lot of technobabble and a subplot involving AI and deepfakes, but what the movie does is provide Davis with a showcase for her ass-kicking abilities. She channels her fellow gravitas-possessing contemporary (and fellow ass-kicker), Angela Bassett, who has made a career of such roles. She expertly shoots bad guys, uses martial arts to throw them around and even endures some torture — all the things a good action star is supposed to do to establish their bonafide bad-assery.
What the storytelling lacks in logic and cohesiveness is more than made up for by the fun that Davis is very clearly having playing Sutton.
This is not how we have been trained to think of Viola Davis. We have been trained to think of her as the serious actress who won an Oscar for Fences and an Emmy for How to Get Away with Murder and starred in The Help, Air and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, among a host of others. She also played Amanda Waller in the DC Comics movies, a bank robber in Widows, and a warrior queen in The Woman King, but none of those roles compare to Danielle Sutton. She’s something else and is enormously fun to watch. Almost as much fun as it appears Davis had playing her.
The Acting Career of Viola Davis
A graduate of Juilliard, Davis began her career on the stage, starting in regional theater before moving to Broadway, where she won a pair of Tony Awards, both for August Wilson plays. The first was in 2001 for King Hedley II, the second nine years later for Fences. That fits, considering that it’s the latter’s film adaptation that won her the Oscar six years later.
Davis, who will be 60 in August, was almost exclusively a stage performer for the first part of her career. Aside from some bit parts here and there on TV and in movies, it was her stage work that kept her going. That changed when she met and became friends with George Clooney. She started showing up in his films, with her first large part coming in the sci-fi remake Solaris.
Over the next few years, more and more substantial roles came her way, culminating in 2008’s Doubt, which proved to be her breakthrough. She earned her first of four Oscar nods for that role and pretty much hasn’t stopped working since.
If there’s any doubt at all about how incredible an actress Viola Davis is, consider that she is one of just nine women in history to win the Triple Crown of Acting — that being an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony. Her fellow honorees? Helen Hayes, Ingrid Bergman, Shirley Booth, Rita Moreno, Maureen Stapleton, Jessica Tandy, Anne Bancroft, Vanessa Redgrave, Maggie Smith, Ellen Burstyn, Helen Mirren, Frances McDormand, Jessica Lange and Glenda Jackson. That’s a pretty impressive company.
Fun fact: Neither Meryl Streep nor Glenn Close is on that list.
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