At 56, Actress Viola Davis is a woman of many firsts. For the years she has put into her craft, Davis is the first African-American to attain the triple crown of acting. In 2001, Davis received her first Tony Award for her role in King Hedley II. Nine years later, she would earn a second award for her portrayal of Rose Maxson in Fences. For her role in Doubt, Davis landed the biggest win of her career, a breakthrough that saw her gain an Academy Award nomination. It wasn’t until 2016 that she bagged an Academy Award for reprising her role in Fences. Davis’s most popular role, that of Annalise Keating in the Shonda Rhimes drama How to Get Away with Murder, earned the actress an Emmy. To sum it up, Viola has nothing left to prove. This is how she’s made a name for herself:
Growing Up In Abject Poverty
According to Viola Davis’s upcoming memoir, Finding Me, whose excerpt can be found online ahead of its much-anticipated worldwide release, she grew up in abject poverty. “ We were “po”. We almost never had a phone. Often, we had no hot water or gas. We had to use a hot plate, which increased the electric bill. The plumbing was shoddy, so the toilets never flushed,” The book reads in part. Viola’s older sister Dianne, who lived miles away from the deplorable state she grew in, first planted the seed of hope in her. Even at such a young age, in the back of her mind, Viola knew there had to be something different out there.
An Actress Is Born
Inside every actor or actress is a story of how they fell in love with the craft. In Viola’s case, she has the rundown apartment she grew up in to thank because it was the place that introduced her to the craft of acting. After watching Cicely Tyson in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Viola was bewildered by the thought that a single actor had transformed in the most artistic way possible. She knew then that she wanted to be an artist.
Humble Beginnings
In 1992, Viola began a career on stage as part of the cast of the William Shakespeare play As You Like It. She would later move on to Broadway, playing the role of Vera in the August Wilson production, Seven Guitars. Off-Broadway, Viola had begun to pace her career. For her portrayal of a nurse in The Substance of Fire, Viola earned herself a Screen Actors Guild card. Afterward, she appeared in a number of films well into the 2000s including Out of Sight, Traffic, The Shrink Is In, and Get Rich or Die Tryin’ to mention but a few. On television, Viola made appearances in a number of shows, including NYPD Blue, City of Angels, Judging Amy, and Century City.
Breakout Role: “Doubt”
In 2008, Viola finally landed a breakthrough as an actress through her portrayal of Mrs. Miller in the movie Doubt. Film critic Roger Ebert wrote of Viola’s performance: “Something else happens. The real world enters this sealed, parochial battlefield. Donald’s mother fears her son will be expelled from the school. He has been accused of drinking the altar wine. Worse, of being given it by Father Flynn. She appeals directly to Sister Aloysius, in a scene as good as any I’ve seen this year. It lasts about 10 minutes, but it is the emotional heart and soul of “Doubt,” and if Viola Davis isn’t nominated by the Academy, an injustice will have been done. She goes face to face with the pre-eminent film actress of this generation, and it is a confrontation of two equals that generates terrifying power.” True to his prediction, Viola finally gained wide recognition in the industry, clinching her very first Academy Award nomination. More nominations would follow, including one for her role in The Help, which gave her a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Starring In “How To Get Away With Murder”
In 2014, Viola landed yet another role that introduced her to a global fanbase. Annalise Keating quickly became a fan favorite and an online sensation, thanks to her no-nonsense persona and peculiar walking style. Following her performance, Viola made history by becoming the first woman of color to win a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. In her speech, Viola paid an ode to talented women of color whose prowess remained hidden because of lack of opportunity. “You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there,” an emotional Viola said. She went on to give a heartfelt tribute to writers like Shonda Rhimes, who made it a mission to redefine what it meant to be a leading woman on television.
An Academy Award-Worthy Performance
In 2016, Viola reprised the role of Rose Maxson in Fences, one which at last landed her an Academy Award. Years after she’d watched Cicely Tyson make the best art she’d witnessed at the time, Viola was standing on the biggest stage in the acting sphere, accepting an award. In her speech, Davis shed light on untold stories that lay in the graveyard. “ You know there’s one place that all the people with the greatest potential are gathered. One place, and that’s the graveyard. People ask me all the time, What kind of stories do you want to tell, Viola? And I say, exhume those bodies. Exhume those stories. The stories of the people who dreamed big, and never saw those dreams to fruition. People who fell in love and lost. I became an artist, and thank God I did because we’re the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life.”
A Formidable Storyteller
In true celebration of what it means to be a storyteller, Viola Davis and her husband Julius Tennon founded JuVee Productions in 2011, and have been telling stories since. In 2020, JuVee Productions expanded its existing television and film deal with Amazon Studios, having left its former home, ABC. The company is credited for a number of productions, including Emanuel, Lila & Eve, and Custody. Its most recent work of art, The Woman King, is scheduled for release in September of 2022 and features The Underground Railroad’s Thuso Mbedu. After so many years in the business of acting, Viola Davis has stayed true to her original dream: Being an artist. Prior to the demise of Cicely Tyson, who inspired Viola’s acting career, their paths crossed. For a little girl watching The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman in awe, there’s no bigger proof that, at that moment, working alongside her idol, she’d received the honor of a lifetime. Destiny had come full circle and placed her right where it had all begun.
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