the triple crown of horse racing is hard to come by
same goes for the triple crown of acting that's an oscar an emmy and a tony in an acting category
of the 24 performers who've pulled off the feet viola davis is currently the youngest
and the first african-american on stage or when the cameras roll davis will rip her heart out
but with a surgeon's touch she doesn't overwhelm so much as she inhabits a role
perhaps because of this classical approach to the craft she didn't vault to ayla's status but
rather worked her way up letter by letter her next performance is davis in full ascent
she headlines a netflix movie out later this month adapted from august wilson's canon of plays
at age 55 davis put on weight and padding put in gold teeth and plays the irrepressible title
character in the film ma rainey's black bottom the story will continue in a moment
was the real-life mother of the blues whose cabaret style tent shows in the 1920s south
led her to a lucrative recording career
and proudly declared her bisexuality in her lyrics viola davis swivels into the character a diva with
heft a role she didn't see herself playing at first no i i did not i here's the thing about
acting it's a weird peter pan syndrome that happens so i still saw myself as that 19 year
old girl going i can't play my rainy i'm too young oh you got to get a more formidable actress who's
been out there for 40 50 years until i realized viola you're actually a little bit older than
what marie is they don't care nothing about me davis has been out there acting for three decades
first on stage you're talking like a college kid then in a string of films as the best friend
the junkie the widow let me go check in the kitchen the maid and they're going to treat
me the way i want to be treated no matter how much you hurt them but ma is different where's
my coke i need a coca-cola take this scene before recording tracks on a sweaty summer day
ma demands that the white guys profiting from her music first bring her a coke let's do this one
song not too cheap to buy me a coca-cola you get all that coke down in one take yes i did
yeah i drank the whole coke yes what's really going on in that scene
what's really going on is it's not about the coke it's about what i deserve it's about
what i've worked for and what i've earned what you all say don't count with me you understand
if ma rainey was unapologetic about her worth viola davis took a while to get there herself
nudged along by the late playwright august wilson the man who wrote her breakout stage role
vera in the 1996 broadway production of seven guitars you might have been in love love don't
know no age and i don't know no experience what about my life what about me fifteen years later
her layered portrayal of devoted wife rose maxson in another wilson classic fences earned
davis first a tony award i've been right here with your toy and then an oscar in the film adaptation
what is it about august wilson that clearly resonates so deeply with you
first of all he creates real human beings and he makes the most common black man
black woman kings and queens but i think that there's a common understanding
that when you have playwrights and writers like arthur miller and eugene o'neill and edward albee
and shakespeare that they're writing a universal language because they're white i think that you
could see yourself in an august wilson play i do you don't get to meet shakespeare you don't get to
meet tennessee williams you met august wilson what was the most memorable thing he ever said to you
that i was beautiful it was during seven guitars she has a monologue that absolutely is like an
aria and he said he would always watch it and he would always say viola you are just so beautiful
and um i don't know i never felt feminine i never felt like i could fit into that sort of confines
of what it meant or the stereotypical ways of what being a woman was about until i did seven guitars
how to get away with murder for the last six years davis pushed the boundaries of femininity
on the small screen as criminal defense lawyer annelise keating in how to get away with murder
once famously removing her wig and makeup on camera
did you know in advance of the role that that scene was coming yes because i told them that they
had to write it for me they had to write that scene absolutely i wanted to humanize her as
much as i could and i wanted to put my stamp on her as much as i could in her work davis will
choose reality over vanity every time she strips away any veneer in telling her own story too
she grew up in central falls rhode island one of six children in a family gripped by poverty there
was one apartment that we lived in that was just infested with rats they were everywhere they were
in the cabinets they were in the walls they were under our beds and just never having any food you
speak very openly about growing up in poverty yeah why do you do that i do that because i think that
there's a lot of shame involved with poverty that you wouldn't be poor if you did the right thing
when you're poor what happens is it seeps through your mind it's not just a financial state it's an
invisibility state it's a worthlessness state as a girl she dealt with these feelings in part by
creating alter egos an early exercise in slipping into character who were jaji and jaja jaja
jazzy darling they were our imaginary friends me and my sister delores who were the closest in age
and we would play these like two rich white women from beverly hills
we would imagine all these fabulous dishes that we would be eating and at the same time as a way
to escape our lives into these sort of shadow characters who were everything that we weren't
by the time she got to high school davis was calling herself an actor and imagining herself
on a professional stage i needed something to catapult me out of this like a like a rocket
booster the dreams they couldn't be casual dreams did you know you had talent deep down oh yeah you
did absolutely she studied theater in college and then got a scholarship to juilliard the exclusive
performing arts conservatory in new york city what was juilliard like for you juilliard i
compared it to musa next museum next the drug mucinex yeah the cough syrup mu snacks it works
but it tastes really bad going down they critique your body your personality your speech everything
so what is that like to hear this isn't biola you're not a particularly good dentist this is you
it's devastating she came into her own on theater stages around the country
scorching and illuminating were among the raves critics lavished on her early performances
you played this house i sure did despite recent foot surgery davis kept her date with us at the
ahmanson theater in los angeles where she performed in the 90s this is really cool oh
man i know the stage still fills her with awe what's the first thing that goes through your
head when you're on a stage wow it's that big rush of adrenaline this theater has been dark
for almost nine months now yeah to what extent do you worry about the performing arts i worry about
the performing arts all the time even before covid i know acting is not rocket science i really do
but it's an art form and it has its place we need people to feel we need people to know that
they're not alone that's what the theater does look sister i don't want any trouble
the stage actress vaulted to hollywood star when she stole a scene from meryl streep
in the 2008 movie doubt you'd hurt my son to get your way it won't end with your son
throw the priest out then i am trying to do just that then what do you want from me
was there added pressure playing alongside meryl streep what do you think and you know she's going
to bring her game so you have to match it you just want to look like you belong in the movie
the performance remarkable is much for what it holds back is what it reveals made such
an impression that streep lobbied for davis by name at the screen actors guild awards
viola davis my god somebody give her a movie
that must have knocked you over i mean that must oh my god it was everything as bigger roles came
her way davis says she still felt stalled she's been critical of hollywood for providing too few
opportunities to black actors and for assuming movies with black leads won't sell and even after
you so call have made it it's still a fight every single day and what we're fighting is
african americans we're fighting the movie-making business that has already decided who you are
and how you're marketable i could deal with you if you're just a part of the story but you're
just a secondary part of the story you're not the main focus you don't seem to feel better
you sing because that's the way you understand life davis is unmistakably the main focus of
her latest film even if the character she plays doesn't get top billing on history's call sheet
there wasn't a lot of material on this woman there are not so many photographs this is one
probably the best known one yup i love this one i love this picture because i'm always wondering
who is she who is she really beyond the gold teeth beyond the sereneness you see in this
what do you think she was a combination of a woman from her time period which is right in
the smack dab in jim crow feeling worthless but at the same time knowing who she was
deep inside just cause i say yes i don't mean i'm spooked up by them i know what i'm doing mahrani
also marks the final performance of chadwick boseman who died of colon cancer last august
we were just watching a great artist absolutely give himself over to a role which is what you do
you give yourself you sacrifice yourself since the pandemic davis has repaired to her home in
the san fernando valley which she shares with her ten-year-old daughter and her husband julius
tennant an actor himself tennant appreciates the depths davis can go in her work this woman's
getting ready to do more rainy and she's showing me a fat suit she's going honey my fat suit she's
excited about the transformation i mean that's the epitome of an actor who really wants to disappear
and viola disappears when she's working there's a few other small changes in there together they run
juvi productions which pushes projects the studios might otherwise ignore the latest movie in their
pipeline it's about a real-life all-female army in west africa tell me about the woman king oh man
i always wanted a black female braveheart this is it the movie is set to start filming next year
i'd love the position this performer who toiled for decades waiting for hollywood to catch up
to her talent is now calling the shots how do you take the measure of this journey you've been on i
have to say two things number one i always have to tell myself that i'm not poor anymore that i'm not
that girl anymore but at the same time i have to honor that young girl and allow her to squeal with
delight at the 55 year old she gets to become that's an acknowledgement of the whole journey
absolutely you