Sheila Atim: ‘You can’t get a complete history of anything in two hours – particularly the slave trade’

The star of ‘The Underground Railroad’ and ‘Bruised’ speaks to Louis Chilton about her new all-action period film ‘The Woman King’, balancing West End plaudits with Disney blockbusters, and the ‘Game of Thrones’ spin-off that never was

Sheila Atim: ‘It’s African warriors, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and led by Viola Davis. What’s not to love?’ (Jeff Vespa/Shutterstock)

Sheila Atim is happy to play the fool. More than happy, in fact – it may just be her dream role. As a litmus test, I had asked the two-time Olivier Award-winning actor which of Shakespeare’s myriad roles she would most want to tackle – sort of a culture snob’s equivalent of an astrology chart or Myers-Briggs alignment. I expect one of the biggies – perhaps Prospero, Hamlet or Lady Macbeth. But no, it’s the wise, eccentric figures advising from the margins of plays such as King Lear or Twelfth Night. “They see everything, usually more clearly than anybody else does,” Atim says. “But they’re disregarded because they’re just a fool.”

We’re meeting in a London hotel, days before the release of her new film, The Woman King. Standing at nearly six feet tall, with sapphire-blue hair and a chic grey pantsuit, the Ugandan-born British actor radiates style and confidence. She speaks affably but meticulously; her answers are precise and resolutely diplomatic.

Atim has reason to be confident, of course. Over the past half-decade, the 31-year-old has emerged as one of the West End’s most prodigious performers. Her supporting turn in the Bob Dylan musical Girl From the North Country won her an Olivier in 2018, demonstrating not only her singing ability – bringing cut-glass clarity to Dylan’s “Tight Connection to My Heart” – but a complexly vulnerable stage presence. She transposed this quality seamlessly to her screen work: whether it’s a tragic death scene or an intimate romance, you always get the sense there are a dozen conflicting emotions dancing somewhere behind her eyes. Earlier this year, she won another Olivier, this time in the Best Actress category, for her role in the multi-cast re-staging of Constellations. Those unfamiliar with her stage career may recognise her from Barry Jenkins’s searing slavery TV drama The Underground Railroad. Or the Netflix sports drama Bruised, in which she starred opposite Halle Berry. Or maybe the BBC’s 2020 adaptation of the Agatha Christie mystery The Pale Horse.

Today, though, she’s here to talk about The Woman King, Gina Prince-Bythewood’s thunderously entertaining epic inspired by the Agojie, a real-life all-female army in 19th-century Africa. It’s the kind of big, earnest movie that seldom gets made anymore: a practical effects-heavy period thriller in the vein of Braveheart or Gladiator. Set in the West African kingdom of Dahomey (now Benin), The Woman King focuses on General Nanisca (Viola Davis), a revered fighter and leader of the Agojie. “It’s African warriors, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and led by Viola. What’s not to love?” asks Atim.

Amenza, Atim’s character, is Nanisca’s trusted advisor, a wise confidante who knows where the bodies are buried. She’s a little reminiscent of a Shakespearean fool – but handier with a spear. It’s no surprise the film’s deftly choreographed battle sequences required weeks of physical preparation. “It was constant, and an integral part of our process, playing warriors,” Atim said. “I practised in my own personal time on my balcony. Everybody staying in the apartments near me must have thought, ‘There’s the crazy woman with the stick again’.”

In the weeks since the film premiered in the US, it has outperformed expectations, topping the box office in its opening weekend and already making back its $50m budget. In her four-star review for The Independent, Clarisse Loughrey described the film as a “vibrant, restorative celebration of Black womanhood in all its glory”, adding that Atim’s performance, and those of co-stars Davis, Thuso Mbedu and Lashana Lynch, were “unilaterally committed – not only to the hardened quality of these soldiers, but also to their gentility, their sense of humour, their pain, and their resolve”.

Despite the plaudits, The Woman King has also faced a backlash over its distortion of historical fact. The claim? That the film ignores Dahomey’s historical involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. "I’d encourage people to watch the film with an open heart,” Atim says. “Within the first 30 seconds, a voiceover explains the state of play, directly acknowledging the slave trade. In fact, the crux of the narrative is about that.

“The film is two hours long,” she continues. “You know, it’s impossible to get a complete history of anything in two hours, particularly something as seismic as the transatlantic slave trade, which was perpetuated for generations, and involved a huge part of the world. A story is always going to be shone through a particular prism.”

Spear me the details: Sheila Atim in ‘The Woman King’ (Sony)

While The Woman King gives Atim ample room for character development amid the bloodshed, her other forays into the world of Hollywood haven’t always been quite so substantial. For one, she had a small role in this year’s Marvel blockbuster Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, playing Sara Wolfe, a sorcerer. I ask her about the reports that much of the material she had shot had been cut out in post-production. “Yeah,” she replies, “but then that happens in films – especially with these epic big-budget films. I really do admire directors working on that scale. You have to maintain a clear vision whilst also taking in all of the horizon – it’s not easy! But I’ve always been an actor who’s fine with cuts.”

Was it a similar story with Pinnochio? Atim had enjoyed a blink-and-you’ll miss it appearance in Robert Zemeckis’s live-action/CGI remake of the children’s classic, which arrived on Disney Plus last month. As it turns out, she had only been on set for a couple of days and had been swayed to take the role in part because she’d be sharing a scene with the man playing Gipetto: Tom Hanks. “Everyone says he’s the nicest man in the world. It sounds like a cliche,” she says. “But he genuinely is. We were doing our read-throughs during Covid so we had to come into the room one-by-one to make sure we were distanced. He was the last to come in, and I heard his voice in the corridor, and I was like, ‘It’s Woody from Toy Story!’”

Atim was also part of Bloodmoon, the Game of Thrones spin-off that was scrapped before HBO switched focus to House of the Dragon – but not before a pilot was filmed, reportedly costing $30m. Ask her about it and Atim scythes her hand across the general area of her throat. “NDAs.”

“It was my first time being involved in a project of that scale,” she says, after a little more prompting. “So I was also learning in real time how this side of the business can work sometimes. And yeah, there was a huge amount put into it. But there are so many projects that are close to being something and then don’t get released. I had a wonderful time doing the pilot.”

Atim (right) plays one of the many members of the Agojie, the all-women fighting force of Dahomey (Sony)

When any acclaimed stage actor makes the leap to blockbusters, there’s always a risk of conflicted interests. How do they reconcile their craft with all the commerce-driven green-screen excess? “I find myself aware of it,” says Atim, “but I haven’t found myself too torn yet. I’m always trying to interrogate what the value of a project is. As long as you’re honest with yourself about why you’re accepting a job at a given point in time, you can make your peace with that.

“So if you’re doing a job at a time because you’ve got a mortgage to pay, and there’s going to be a TV series with a couple of years’ option… fill your boots. I don’t pass judgement on why people do certain projects. I think it’s a very personal and time-dependent thing. I also want to have lots of different experiences.”

Her career may still be building momentum, but Atim already has a number of enviable roles to her name. Now she only has to find the right fool to play.