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'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom': Viola Davis plays blues singer in Netflix scene

Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Netflix is giving a glimpse of the new film Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

The streaming service shared a preview of the movie Wednesday featuring Viola Davis as blues singer Ma Rainey, known as the "Mother of the Blues."

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In the scene, Davis delivers a monologue as Rainey, who died at age 53 in 1939.

"They don't care nothing about me. All they want is my voice," Rainey (Davis) says. "Well, I done learned that. And they gonna treat me the way I want to be treated no matter how much it hurt 'em."

"They back there right now calling me all kinds of names. Calling me everything but a child of God. But they can't do nothing else 'cause they ain't got what they wanted yet," she adds.

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is based on the August Wilson play of the same name. The film is written by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, directed by George C. Wolfe and produced by Denzel Washington, Todd Black and Dany Wolf.

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom centers on a fateful recording session for Rainey in 1927 Chicago. The movie co-stars Chadwick Boseman, Glynn Turman and Colman Domingo, and is the final film appearance for Boseman, who died at age 43 in August.

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Davis previously starred in a 2016 adaptation of Wilson's play Fences. She appears in the new Netflix documentary Giving Voice, which follows students in the annual August Wilson monologue competition. Wilson died in 2005.

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom premieres Dec. 18 on Netflix.

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