Viola Davis is one of the most important and influential actresses today,
thanks to her mastery of the craft, her transcendent style choices,
and her compelling speeches. Here's a look through her stunning transformation.
Davis has shared a lot of tough truths about her childhood, so it's not hard to understand
how she's able to ooze such natural resilience in her work. She was born on a former plantation
in Saint Matthews, South Carolina in a home that had no running water. Her mother was a maid,
her father was a horse trainer, and she was the fifth of six children. The
Davis clan relocated to Central Falls, Rhode Island shortly after her birth,
and they suffered through extreme poverty throughout her early life.
At Variety's Power of Women luncheon in 2014, Davis told the crowd,
"Although my childhood was filled with many happy memories,
it was also spent in abject poverty. I was one of the 17 million kids in this
country who didn't know where the next meal was coming from, and I did everything to get food."
She continued,
"I've stolen for food, I've jumped in huge garbage bins with maggots for food. I have
befriended people in the neighborhood who I knew had mothers who cooked three meals a
day for food. And I sacrificed a childhood for food — and grew up in immense shame."
Because of her firsthand experience with destitution,
Davis has since become a vocal advocate for "Hunger Is",
an organization that provides breakfast to millions of children in need.
Despite her inauspicious beginnings, Davis' ambition to act arose early in her life when
she witnessed Cicely Tyson's Emmy-winning performance in 1974's The Autobiography
of Miss Jane Pittman. In 2016, she told Dallas' WFAA News 8,
"I saw that performance in the midst of that apartment that was infested with rats and had no
plumbing and no telephone. It was literally like the birds stopped
chirping, she walked into my heart, and I had that physical manifestation of a dream."
Given her precarious circumstances, Davis could've easily decided that her ambition was unrealistic,
but her sister encouraged her to aspire to the performing arts, as she told her,
"You have to decide right now what you want to be
because that's the only way you are not going to be poor."
Davis eventually achieved a degree in theater at Rhode Island College in 1988 and then went on to
attend Juilliard, graduating in 1993. She's since gotten to share the screen with Tyson,
in both 2011's The Help and on How to Get Away with Murder, in which Tyson played Davis' mother.
Before her film and TV career started taking off,
Davis established herself as a strong presence on the theatrical stage. She starred in the 1996
Broadway production of Seven Guitars before taking on several off-Broadway productions,
one of which would lead to the first acting trophy on her display shelf.
Davis won an Obie Award in 1999 for her work as the title character
in Everybody's Ruby. She was also nominated for a Tony for that same performance. After that,
she really became a dominant figure on the stage. She nabbed the role of Tonya in the 2001 Broadway
production of King Hedley II, which earned her a Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Play.
Around that time, her on-screen career was also showing signs of really lifting off.
Davis earned her Screen Actors Guild membership card around the same time she was getting
started on the Broadway circuit. Her first movie credit was the 1996 film The Substance of Fire,
in which she played the character of "Nurse." In 2015, she recalled to TV Insider,
"I had to pass [Timothy Hutton a vial of] blood, and I got paid $518. I did my first
take and thought, 'Oh, my God, that was so easy!' I started taking my wardrobe off and they said,
'You’re not done.' I said, 'This is going to be hard work for $518—you
got more money?' But it was fabulous. I thought I had made it."
"We gotta do the close-up, we gotta turn around. I was like, 'You kidding me?
I get 500-and-something dollars, and I gotta work all day?' (laughs)"
Davis was also getting TV work around this time, as she landed small roles
in series like NYPD Blue. She landed her first regular gig in the 2000 CBS medical drama
City of Angels, in which she once again played a nurse. Although the show only ran for two seasons,
it would prove to have a long-lasting impact on her life, as it was where she
met her future husband, Julius Tennon. The two first connected after doing a scene together
and hitting craft services for a bagel. As Davis recalled to People Magazine,
"He was like 'Hey,' because we had just [done] a scene. The only thing I thought was,
'He's good looking. He's really good looking.'"
Who knew a bagel bar could be such a matchmaking hotspot? Call it a hole-y union!
In 2008, Davis started to become a household name, thanks to her masterful performance in
the film Doubt alongside Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams.
The role resulted in her first Oscar nomination and established her as a major
cinematic force who could deliver the goods just as well as her formidable castmates.
"Sister, you ain't going against no man in a robe and win. He's got the position."
"And he's got your son." "Let him have him then."
Streep in particular was taken by Davis' talents.
She lapped praise on her co-star in January 2017 at Davis' Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, saying,
"Viola Davis is possessed. She is possessed to the blazing, incandescent power. She is arguably the
most immediate, responsive artist I have ever worked with. She's so alive, she glistens."
Streep continued,
"She plants herself in a scene where she has no words and she writes paragraphs with her eyes.
She's a force of nature — and she's the most generous, present person I know. She has earned
every step on the ladder to the leadership position she now enjoys in this business."
In 2012, while Viola Davis was making the rounds on the awards circuit for her work in The Help,
she decided to bare even more of her true self to fans by ditching her traditional wigs
and showing off her natural hairstyle on the red carpet. Although Meryl Streep went home
with the Oscar that year for her work in The Iron Lady, Davis remained a stone cold winner
for her inspiring natural look, and she would default to that style on many more occasions
afterward. The decision to skip the wig came at the suggestion of her husband. She told InStyle,
"My husband wanted me to take the wig off. He said, 'If you want to wear it for your career,
that's fine, but in your life wear your hair. Step into who you are!' It's a powerful statement."
Not only was it powerful and exhilarating to witness,
it would also inform some of her most pivotal career moves going forward.
As Davis' career heated up, it was only a matter of time before she would land her own starring
role on the small screen, and what a role it was. She was tapped to play the lead character
of Annalise Keating in the legal thriller How to Get Away with Murder, which was executive-produced
by Shonda Rhimes. She happily accepted the role on one condition: that she could shed her wig
on-screen at some point during the series. She did so in the fourth episode of the first season,
as she slowly wiped away a meticulously designed facade of hair and makeup in front of the cameras.
At a For Your Consideration panel for the show, Davis revealed that she'd grown weary
of the TV scene that always showed women in a certain, fixed-up light. So she wanted
to make sure that her portrayal accurately represented a no-makeup reality. As she put it,
"I wanted to see a real woman on TV. I wanted to see who we are before we walk
out the door in the morning and put on the mask of acceptability [...] It felt
like who [Annalise] was in private had to be diametrically opposed to who she was in public.
And so in order to do that, I felt like I had to physically take the wig off."
She added,
"For me, that simple act really surmounted to something very powerful in the end,
because what it was, was someone being very,
very private in public, which is absolutely the cornerstone of what we do as artists."
Davis and her husband Julius Tennon love each other so much that they've been married three
times. They originally tied the knot in 2003, and they would go on to later renew their vows,
not once, but twice. The second vow renewal ceremony happened in 2016,
and it was a much more high-profile event than the first one. Davis told InStyle,
"I wanted an experience of feeling alive. There's no better way to feel what life is truly about
than the birth of a child and getting married to someone you love — really love. It's a reminder.
A wake up. My career is about success but my marriage and my life is about significance."
The ceremony featured an A-list guest list,
including Oprah Winfrey, while Davis stunned in a luxurious custom Carmen Marc Valvo gown
that she described as ideal for her body type. As she put it,
"It accentuates my waist. It's dramatic, timeless, and romantic. I wanted something that made a
statement when I walked in the room but also that didn't look like I was trying too hard."
In 2017, Davis finally received some recognition that was long overdue as she accepted the Academy
Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in the Pittsburgh-set Fences.
"It's not easy for me to admit that I've been standing in the same place for 18 years."
"Well, I've been standing with you! I've been right here with you, Troy."
This was her third nomination, following her previous nods for
Doubt and The Help. But this was the first time that her name was called
out as the winner. Davis dazzled as she accepted the trophy, taking the time to tearfully praise
the acting profession for treasuring the importance of storytelling. She declared,
"I became an artist, and thank God I did
because we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life."
She also praised her co-star and director, the legendary Denzel Washington. She closed
the speech by celebrating her family, who were in the audience that night. She proclaimed,
"You teach me every day how to live,
how to love. I'm so glad that you are the foundation of my life."
In 2020, after six seasons starring as Annalise Keating in How to Get Away with Murder,
Davis bid farewell to a character she'd gotten to know intimately.
In an interview with The Grio, she said,
"I'm feeling a little emotional and I didn't think that I would.
After six years, sometimes you're so exhausted and ready to go."
She added that she was proud to subvert the stereotype that only white women can be the
leading lady, and she considered that the legacy of her role. While the departure was bittersweet,
Davis had some pretty exciting projects to look forward to, including playing former first lady
Michelle Obama in the upcoming Showtime series First Ladies. She told Refinery29,
"I have met Michelle Obama twice and we're certainly representing her beautifully.
There is something about her... she's perfect."
"You know Michelle Obama, right?" "I've met Michelle Obama."
"Does she know you're playing her?" "I have no idea, and I'm terrified."
Davis also signed on to serve as an executive producer for the series,
which delves into the personal and public lives of first ladies throughout history.
So with all that Davis has now accomplished, what advice would she give to her younger self?
She had the chance to answer that question in a 2019 interview with People Magazine when she said,
"I would tell her that she was enough."
She also noted,
"Until recently, someone told me, 'Maybe you need to let the little girl heal you at 54.
Maybe you need to allow the little girl to be excited at the 54-year-old she gets
to become. Because actually, she did pretty good."
We'll take a step further and say that Viola Davis has done even better than just "pretty good"!
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus,
even more List videos about your favorite stuff are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.