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Viola Davis is not backing down!

Starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis, Won’t Back Down is the story of two determined mothers who join forces to transform a school back to a place of learning.

And Viola tells New Idea that she’s so passionate about this project.

"It’s a story of women overcoming their fear and tapping into their power," the actress explains.

"I think anyone who has faced mortality in any way will say they would want to leave something on this earth that’s bigger than themselves. I feel that a life lived for oneself is not a life that’s really lived."

The film is a great character piece but it is also about a really important subject matter. What did strike you most about the project?

Viola: The fact that the backdrop is a subject matter that I find very, very important and that I think needs to be at the forefront of the dialogue that we’re having today. Furthermore, within that is a fabulous human story. It’s a fact based fabulous human story of women overcoming their fear and tapping into their power. And I think it’s a fabulous story about forgiveness, forgiveness of oneself. I love Nona’s arc because of that.

You have been quoted as saying that it is a duty of human beings to rise above their circumstances, to become bigger than themselves. Can you expand a little bit on it?

Viola: I think that that’s pretty much the reason why we’re here, I think that anyone who has faced mortality in any way will say that they would want to leave something on this earth that’s bigger than themselves, that is going to last longer than they will. Because I feel that a life lived for oneself is not a life that’s really lived.

You know, they’ve done a study of 80-year olds who are in nursing homes; one of the things that they ask them is: what would you have done differently? In the answers there were three things that most people seemed to have in common: they said was they would love deeper, they would risk more and they would leave something on this earth that lasted far longer than they did. And I think that it’s really telling that when you’re facing your death you would have this sudden “ha!” moment.

Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal at the premiere of Won't Back Down. Source: Getty

Do you think that women are more or better equipped to take initiatives such as Nona and Jamie in the film, to confront a system when such system doesn’t work?

Viola: Well, because I’m a woman of course, I would say better. I think that’s something about female instinct that’s just sensitive and compassionate and easier. Sometimes it’s easier for us to extend beyond ourselves as women, maybe because a lot of us are mothers.

So I love that. And I love the fact that while a lot of times - especially in Hollywood - the power women have so often lays in how they look and who they are, in the film we are talking about a different power, that comes from within us.

I think it’s extraordinary that these two women, who when you meet them feel absolutely powerless in their lives, are then given the gigantic test of facing a huge system without any preparation for it.

The only preparation is their need and desire. And when they face this system, they see that their ability and their strength grow. You see Nona come back to life and you see Jamie also come back to life.

The film is inspired by actual events. While working on Nona’s character, how much did you research the subject and interact with people that were involved in the real world of education reform?

Viola: We didn’t have any “expert” on the set or anything like that. The research I did, my personal inspiration is my sister, who has been a public school teacher for 20 years in the school that we both went to in Central Falls, Rhode Island. She’s an English teacher, and a great teacher. She’s Nona. That’s who I modeled it after.

What was your own experience in school? Do you remember any defining moment or any teacher that was very important for you?

Viola: My entire life has been filled with a great teacher here and there, a teacher that kind of paved the way or got me over a hump. And not just teachers but people who came into my life to educate, to teach me something about myself.

The first being my sister Diane whom I met for the first time when she was 9 and I was 5.

This is another sister, my oldest. She went to segregated schools in the South. She was raised by my grandmother because we were too poor to take care of her and my brother. And she came to live with us for the first time when she was 9 and my brother was 11. She saw an indoor toilet for the first time when she was 6, and it changed her life.

She’d never seen one before, the pristine white bathroom. And she was in such failing school system that she felt like she wanted something more. And from the time she came to live with us, she said, ‘The only way you could get out of abject poverty’ which we were in ‘is to stay in school and get an education.’

As an actress and occasionally a producer, how much responsibility do you feel to undertake roles that help people becoming aware of issues vital for our society?

Viola: I feel great responsibility to that, huge. But as an artist I feel the responsibility to do great work. I believe that the work is bigger than the message, and that it is the excellence of the work is what creates the legacy of change.

Because if you just focus on the image and the message and nothing else, you really do not create any change in the world, or within my community which is the African-American community.

I want to create characters that are human and well-rounded and expansive, and I think that is the most revolutionary thing that I can do.

Won’t Back Down is out now on DVD