When the G20 Summit comes under siege, U.S. President Danielle Sutton (Academy Award winner Viola Davis) becomes the number one target. After evading capture by the attackers, she must outsmart the enemy to protect her family, defend her country and safeguard world leaders in this action-packed thrill ride.
As G20 prepares to launch on Prime Video on April 10, Nick L’Barrow was invited to participate in the global press conference, in which star Viola Davis and director Patricia Riggen broke down some of the awesome action scenes seen in the movie, and the excitement of bringing a female-led action movie to the world!
On Viola Davis and Patricia Riggen collaborating with each other…
Viola Davis: Well, for me, it was kismet. What I love about Patricia is that she is passionate about her choices. It’s coming from an authentic place. So, therefore, she is a collaborator, but she’s not going to give up her vision for the project, and I love that.
There’s a saying I love from Glennon Doyle – ‘when it comes to disappointing yourself, or other people – choose other people all the time’. Your duty in life is to disappoint as many people as possible. Girls sometimes forget that memo, and they concede so often because we don’t occupy spaces in this genre, in this field, in this business. They sort of meld their vision and their artistry, and their scope for the studio. And I did not see Patricia do that. She made bold, strong choices that she believed in.
Patricia Riggen: I am very, I guess, stubborn in what I believe in, and I fight till the very end because that’s my job to protect the movie. The key I think is to not doubt myself and keep believing in myself.
The fact that Viola was there as a producer, and as the lead of the movie, with her intelligence, and her instincts, and her talent, just made me stronger. She’s a good boss to have [laughs].
On shooting in Cape Town, South Africa…
Viola Davis: I like to call South Africa ‘God’s Playground’! It’s like if you could through everything that is beautiful about a country – the people, the food, the landscape, the heart – South Africa has all of it. We want on safari. Table Mountain. The scope and breadth of the ocean there. It was fantastic.
Patricia Riggen: On this side of things, over the last few decades as filmmakers, we’re always chasing tax incentives. We’re always shooting where there’s a tax incentive, and South Africa has them, which made it much easier to be allowed to shoot there! Normally we would shoot in New York or LA for South Africa, but this time we’re actually shooting South Africa for South Africa!
But it is absolutely spectacular in every way. And in fact, the real G20 Summit will take place in South Africa!
On balancing the physicality and emotional humanity of President Danielle Sutton…
Viola Davis: I think sometimes, especially if someone is the President of the United States, we see them as their role, rather than the human being, you know? For me, I’m not playing the President, but I’m playing Danielle Sutton, who was elected as President of the United States.
Whenever you get a character, you’ve got to find out what is their driving need. What is that thing they’re living for? For her, she’s living for her worth. I see in a lot of people that they’re probably too insecure to admit that they don’t feel worthy. There’s that sort of imposter syndrome that follows us throughout our lives, even when we’ve accomplished massive success.
And with Danielle Sutton, with her sort of being a war hero, and her feeling like she was not deserving of that honour, I feel like that was a beautiful place to start – the reluctant hero.
On shooting the action…
Patricia Riggen: This movie is full of action scenes, and each one is different. Some are just close contact with people fighting each other. One of my favourites was the elevator scene. And in that scene, we have three thugs, plus the President, plus her bodyguard. So, that was five people, plus a few cameramen inside the elevator, and that was a super fun scene to film, but definitely challenging to shoot. And for the helicopter scene, it’s not a VFX helicopter. We had the real thing!
Viola came on board to this film full on. She was super fit and super strong. One of the things I think is very important when we see an action movies, and particularly if it’s a female doing the action, is that we can really believe that she can take on these fights. And there was not a single doubt that she couldn’t. I’m inspired by her arms! I’m now going to the gym to get her arms!
On casting Antony Starr as the villain…
Patricia Riggen: Antony is just such a phenomenal actor. I really equate him to Viola, and that’s a hard thing to see about anybody, because she’s incredibly talented. Antony brought humanity and a passion, but he also loves being evil!
One of the most difficult characters to craft is your villain, and that’s because they can tend to be very cliché and not human. Antony really helped us flesh that out.
On President Danielle Sutton’s iconic red dress…
Viola Davis: How many dresses did we have? Three?
Patricia Riggen: Oh, no. For you, we had about 40 dresses, I think! And there were so many discussions about how you were going to do the fight scenes in that dress, or how you’re going to be in a helicopter, with all the wind!
Viola Davis: I love that dress, but it did become an obstacle, which is beautiful to play as an actor! I was worried people would see my spanx [laughs], and I mean, eventually you do, but that’s a part of life! I’m always a proponent of seeing life in anything we do, no matter how preposterous it is.
I did feel powerful in the dress, but the dress is a realistic element within the scope of the story telling. It’s about having an obstacle, an objective, and conquering them. And that makes you feel powerful. There’re more steps to it than just ‘I am woman. Hear me roar’. There are nuances. It’s a paradox. Strength is a paradox in this movie.
Thank you to Viola and Patricia for their time, and to Prime Video for allowing us to attend this global press conference. G20 is streaming on Prime Video from April 10.
