In The Movie Air, Did Viola Davis Portray Deloris Jordan Accurately?

I just rewatched this film for a second time and enjoyed it as much as I did the first time. All the 80's references bring me back to my youth.

And as I like to do for my own curiosity, I look up the Source Cards of the real-life people. 

In this particular case, I was stunned when I looked up the birthday of Deloris Jordan, Michael Jordan's mother, who is played by Viola Davis. In the film, Davis portrays her as pensive, stoic, and aloof. She is quoted as saying that the key to nailing the role was to be "a great observer and a great listener."

But when I looked up Deloris Jordan's birthday I discovered that she is born to play the 10 of Diamonds. A quick search of Deloris Jordan and I immediately saw her big, bright smile and radiant shine -- which you would expect to see from someone born to play the 10 of Diamonds. Confused, I wondered if perhaps Viola Davis simply didn't have it in her repertoire to shine that brightly in her smile and facial expressions. But no, another search revealed that Viola Davis does indeed, when she wants to, shine brightly in the spotlight.

Her choice, then, to portray Deloris Jordan as a withdrawn observer and pensive listener -- rather than as a radiant woman whose presence lit up the whole room -- is a curious one. It looked great in the movie. In the movie, the mother character appeared as the family rock and the family decision-maker. And perhaps that character choice was a directorial choice, coming from the direction of Ben Affleck, who directed the film.

Nonetheless, it's another real-life movie moment where the actor / director chose to play a real-life historical figure inaccurately. It's not that Deloris Jordan could not also have been a great observer and listener and the real-life decision-maker who had the impeccable business instincts (10 of Diamonds) to know her son's real worth and negotiate for that business deal. But in the other scenes, where we meet her, and where she is chatting and engaging with the other characters, she would have, in real-life, had a big bright shiny presence, not the wallflower, guarded, withdrawn character who we meet through Viola Davis.

It's not that Viola Davis doesn't also flash a smile or two in the film or on occasion show a knowing glint in her eye. It's just that, well, she didn't nail it. And the realization that she didn't nail the character is confirmed by her own words that she felt the way to best portray Deloris Jordan was as an "observer" and a "listener."

Instead, if Viola Davis had known that Deloris Jordan was born to play the 10 of Diamonds, she would have realized that the key to nailing her role would have been to replicate her inner shine! 10 of Diamonds have a shiny presence about them. Sometimes, they literally glow. And that would have been the key to nailing this role: to portray her as someone who shines from the inside out and can't help but shine no mater where she is or who she is talking to.