‘The Woman King’: The Filming Location Was ‘Physically the Hardest Thing’ Any of the Cast and Crew Had Done Before
Leading the cast of The Woman King, Viola Davis is ferocious in her depiction of female warrior Nanisca. But the Oscar-winning actor had far more than her on-screen foes to overcome while filming.
Shot on location in South Africa, The Woman King’s cast and crew had to fight several elements of nature, both seen and unseen. Many of them have called it the greatest physical battle they’ve experienced in entertainment.
‘The Woman King’ filmed on location in South Africa
The Woman King is loosely based on true events that took place in the African kingdom of Dohemy in the 1820s. In the film, Davis’ Nanisca is a general under King Ghezo (John Boyega). She leads a fierce group of female warriors, known as the Agojie.
When the Oyo Empire takes captive the young, spirited Agojie, Nawi (Thuso Mbedu), Nanisca leads the kingdom into a fearsome battle for Dohemy’s independence. While Davis’ Nanisca is a fictional character, the Agojie were a very real part of African history.
As such, when filming The Woman King, director Gina Prince-Bythewood knew the only place to film was Africa. “I wanted to create a 360 world,” Prince-Bythewood tells the LA Times. “… I wanted [the actors] to look around and only see this world, not green screens everywhere or cars and airplanes. I wanted them to be able to have their hands and feet in the soil and they wanted that too.”
That “360 world” was found deep in the African jungle where the cast and crew lacked internet and cell service. For weeks, they suffered swaths of mosquitos, spiders, and snakes. “It was physically the hardest thing that any of us had done,” notes producer Cathy Schulman. “It was pretty amazing to watch this troupe of women behind and in front of the camera go out to do that every day.”
‘The Woman King’ experienced COVID-19’s Omicron variant
Along with all that slithered, buzzed, and crawled on The Woman King set, another serious threat nearly ended production altogether. Three weeks into filming, someone tested positive for the COVID-19 omicron variant. Three days later, 21 people including Davis had contracted the virus.
Prince-Bythewood recalls the moment she feared The Woman King would be shut down indefinitely. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, the producer remembers thinking, “Is the studio going to say, ‘This movie, it’s not worth it?'”
After over a month spent waiting, production resumed, rife with new protocols including quarantined actors, strict limits on the numbers of background actors allowed on set, and reduced film days. But The Woman King prevailed.
‘The Woman King’s box office debut shows victory
Their struggles were not in vain, however, with The Woman King making a strong debut in theaters over its opening weekend of September 16. After raking in $19 million in its first weekend, the film grossed just over $11 million in its second week with an accumulated box office gross of $36.3 million, according to Forbes. Set against its $50 million budget, the film is positioned well for profit.
These numbers may seem lackluster in comparison to the whopping box office performance of this year’s other top-performing action films, according to CNBC: Top Gun: Maverick ($692.4 million), Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($411.3 million), Jurassic World: Dominion ($375 million), The Batman ($369.3 million), Thor: Love and Thunder ($337.1 million), and Spider-Man: No Way Home ($232.8 million). However, The Woman King’s box office performance is important on multiple levels.
Firstly, The Woman King is not a superhero movie. This fact alone sets it in a different class for box office profit. Secondly, The Woman King is a female-led cast (not to mention a Black female-led cast), making it an exception. Lastly, there are no dinosaurs in The Woman King.
Considering this, the box office numbers undoubtedly reveal The Woman King as a commercial success. In conjunction with the summer’s other successful female-led films like Where the Crawdads Sing and Don’t Worry Darling, The Woman King further confirms that big studios should invest in stories made by women about women.
