Jennifer Lawrence has revealed that her favorite film of 2022 was The Woman King.
As part of Variety's latest Actors on Actors series, the Hunger Games star sat down with Viola Davis to discuss their recent work, motherhood, and more. During the chat, Lawrence touched on the action-packed historical drama which centers on the Agojie, the all-female warriors that protected the West African kingdom of Dahomey in the early 1800s – and just so happens to star Davis in the lead role.
"I think that [The] Woman King is the best movie I've seen this year, hands down, and the best movie I've seen in so long," she said candidly.
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Directed by The Old Guard's Gina Prince-Bythewood, The Woman King follows General Nanisca (Davis), a hardened military leader, who is forced to confront her own violent past when a defiant youngster named Nowi (Thuso Mbedu) starts training as one of the Agojie's next band of fighters. The unit's goal? To liberate themselves from the domineering Oyo Empire and push back against the emerging slave trade.
Captain Marvel's Lashana Lynch, Jordan Bolger, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Sheila Atim, and Star Wars' John Boyega round out the supporting cast.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Davis recalled how pessimistic she once was about The Woman King actually getting made during its early stages of development.
"What I have going for me is I'm a Black actress, and I understand how people perceive that. I don't see it as a hindrance," she explained to Lawrence. "But when have I ever seen anything like Woman King, not just with me in it, but with anyone who looks like me in it? What studio is going to put money behind it? How are they going to be convinced that Black women can lead a global box office? So, yeah, I said, 'That's not going to happen, because you don't see it.'"
For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies set to release throughout the rest of 2022 and beyond.
