Maria Bello has played many roles in her life, as an actor, writer, artist, producer, activist. But the title she most closely aligns with now was given to her by friends in Paris: “Flâneuse.”
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“It’s a woman who travels and collects stories—connects people and collects stories,” Bello tells me on a Zoom from her picturesque home in Paris, with a terrace overlooking the Seine.
For Bello, known for her work in TV(ER, NCIS) and film (Coyote Ugly, A History of Violence, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor), her lifelong ability to collect stories and connect people is what led her toThe Woman King. When the credits roll on the film, viewers may have been surprised to see Bello’s name listed with a story and producer credit, but for the past couple decades, Bello has been carrying the story of a group of female African warriors close to her, looking for the right people to bring this story to life. She finally found the army she needed when she joined forces with producersCathy Schulman, Viola Davis, and Julius Tennon, screenwriterDana Stevens, and director Gina Prince-Bythewood. The film, which stars Davis as the leader of a fearsome female army, earned critical praise, awards buzz, and $92 million worldwide thus far at the box office.
Although storytelling is a pillar of Bello’s life, she’s kept the story of her involvement inThe Woman King relatively quiet, and is speaking in-depth on it for the first time now. “I always felt like it wasn’t my story to tell,” she says. “This movie wouldn’t have been made without Viola and this team. I’m just proud.”
As a child growing up in Pennsylvania, Bello would read encyclopedia chapters about African nations over and over. Later, she worked at the library while studying political science at Villanova, which is where she began to focus in on women’s stories—or the lack thereof. “I realized there were really no history books about women,” she says. “The only women I could find in America were like Betsy Ross. She sewed the flag, and then what?”
As she embarked on her acting career—her early role included a stint onER and a role in*Coyote Ugly—*she noticed that this lack of female-focused stories extended beyond books, into big, blockbuster movies. In 1995, when she fell in love with theMel Gibson–starring filmBraveheart, she became set on her future in Hollywood. “At the end of the movie, I said, ‘One day I’m going to make a femaleBraveheart,’” she says.
It would take a while to get there. After she joinedER, Bello began traveling to Africa often. “I fell in love with Kenya many years ago and I have a group of friends there that are like my family,” she says. That’s where she first learned of the Agojie, warrior women who served as the army for the kingdom of Dahomey, an empire in West Africa founded in the 17th century. It seemed a story tailor-made for the big screen, but Bello, who is white, knew that she needed the right people to tell it.
Then, in 2015, Bello was asked topresent an award to Davis at the Skirball Cultural Center for the National Women’s History Museum “Women Making History Awards” in Los Angeles. “I said, ‘There’s so much incredible history. Can you imagine Viola Davis as this warrior in Africa?’ And I even said, ‘As a femaleBraveheart,’” remembers Bello. She got a standing ovation for her speech, along with Davis’s attention. Soon after, Davis and Tennon—her producing partner and husband—signed on to produce.
The Woman King
Bello worked with Stevens on the story, focusing on an all-female unit of warriors, led by General Nanisca (Davis), who is training the next generation of fighters while also facing the darkest parts of her own past. Among the new recruits is a young woman named Nawi (Thuso Mbedu), whose headstrong attitude at first frustrates Nanisca before the pair discover the way their fates are intertwined. Bello says the story came together by layering of all the things she’d been most interested in—an action film centered on women that also explores sisterhood and captures a complicated family relationship. Plus, she wanted to explore “rape as a weapon of war. There are so many revenge fantasies with men—people who hurt them and they get their revenge. I was like, what would that be like [with women]?”
