Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the new film based on August Wilson’s 1982 play that premiered Friday on Netflix. But Viola Davis, who is deeply familiar with Wilson’s oeuvre — she won an Oscar for her role in the 2016 film based on his play Fences — quotes that song in revealing how she leaned into Rainey's unapologetic queerness.
As Rainey, Davis oozes with sexuality, not only in the opening scenes when she’s flanked by writhing women onstage, or in scenes where she holds her girlfriend Dussie Mae from behind — but with every wave of her fan, each note she belts, and every chug of her ice-cold Coca-Cola.“In researching Ma Rainey, she was unapologetic about her sexuality,” Davis tells The Advocate. “This is a woman who went to orgies.