Actress Viola Davis attends a premiere for the movie Doubt in New York. Of her fondness for her Southern New England roots she says, “I may live in Los Angeles, but when someone asks, I still say I live in Central Falls.”

AP / Evan Agostini

It has been a heady time for actress Viola Davis, who grew up in Central Falls, graduated from the theater program at Rhode Island College and once performed at Trinity Rep, where she appeared in the final production of founder Adrian Hall, Red Noses.

But now she has what she calls “a really nice Christmas gift” — or gifts: The accolades being heaped on her for her role as the troubled mother in Doubt. Davis recently received best supporting actress nominations for both the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards, as well as being named Breakthrough Performer of the Year by the National Board of Review.

Over the phone from San Francisco, where she was doing publicity for Doubt, Davis had to chuckle at that last honor. At the age of 43 Davis has appeared in dozens of plays, films and television episodes. She has a 2001 Tony Award for her performance as a woman fighting for her right to an abortion in King Headley II. “But at this point,” she said with a laugh, “I don’t care that I’ll be the Newcomer of the Year.”

Despite more than two decades as a working actress, she cheerfully said that her main impetus for her performance in Doubt was that “I just didn’t want to look bad. That was my goal.”

It’s the film’s pivotal moment, a tearful scene in which Davis’ Mrs. Miller shakes up the immoveable Sister Aloysius, played by Meryl Streep, who is seeking to remove the parish priest for what she suspects are improper advances to Mrs. Miller’s son. Davis was concerned about playing the scene with the Academy Award-winning actress.

And her confidence was shaken a week later, after she returned home to Los Angeles from New York and received a phone call from John Patrick Shanley, who was directing the film from his screenplay based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, asking her to return to New York to re-shoot the scene. “I just had that wobble of confidence. What had I done wrong? I said I’m sure it’s not Meryl Streep who had done something wrong.”

When she arrived in New York, Shanley told her that after looking at the footage that had been shot earlier, he felt Davis was moving at too fast a pace. Although Mrs. Miller is supposed to be in a rush to get to her job in the scene, Shanley told Davis that “it looked like I had just stolen a purse.” Although the scene lasts only several minutes on screen, it took two days to shoot last winter.

There were a couple of weeks of rehearsal time for the film, starting in November 2007, but Davis was more than prepared even before that. She had gotten a copy of Shanley’s play four weeks before the audition for the role and studied it so she could be prepared. Although her scene in the screen version is only about half as long as it was in the play, she felt that by the time of the audition, she really understood the character.

The pressure was on because, “I knew that I would be playing opposite Meryl Streep. I knew it was a Pulitzer Prize-winning play. I knew that it was only one scene, but that it had won the Tony Award for [Adriane Lenox] when she played Mrs. Miller in the Broadway production.”

Davis realized, too, that “this was a great role for an African-American actress. And I know that roles like this don’t come along often for African-American actresses, even Halle Berry. I knew that every African-American actress would come out for this role. And they did, in full force.”

She credits Streep, who received a best actress Golden Globe nomination, with helping her with the scene. “They say you are only as good as your partner, because if they’re not there for you, you have to overcompensate.

“But she is just as committed to your work as to her own. She invests in your work. And also she is the most down to earth, interesting, fun person to work with and she has respect for you. I found my experience with her to be absolutely terrifying and also the most rewarding experience of my life.”

When she got the news of her Golden Globe nomination, Davis said she had just arrived at a London hotel where she and her husband of five years, actor Julius Tennon, began jumping for joy. “Then he jumped three or four times on the concierge’s shoulder, then on the publicist who must have weighed only 90 pounds. It was just an over-the-moon feeling because you just never, ever think you will get recognized.”

Although she has lived in Los Angeles for many years, Davis said, “I go back constantly to Central Falls where I have family and friends. I have great memories of Central Falls.” She credits the social programs that were available to her in Rhode Island, especially the Upward Bound program, with getting her to where she is today. “I may live in Los Angeles, but when someone asks, I still say I live in Central Falls.”

mjanuson@projo.com