Viola Davis has an Oscar, an Emmy and a Golden Globe, among many other honors. She is a veteran of both film and television and has been working steadily since the mid 1990s.
But that doesn't mean she is immune from the issues that many Black actors face in Hollywood.
Davis, 56, told Variety at the Cannes Film Festival during one of her Women in Motion conversations this week, a director called her by his maid's name.
I had a director who did that to me, said the star of First Lady. He said, Louise! I had known him for 10 years and he called me Louise and I found out that it is because his maid's name is Louise. I was probably around 30 at the time, so it was a while ago. You have to realize that micro-aggressions happen all the time. Davis won her Emmy for Murder in 2015 and noted that she is a rarity in front-leaning roles on the series, as a dark-skinned Black woman.
When I left How to Get Away With Murder I don't see a lot of dark skin women in lead roles on TV. She told Variety that she was not even in streaming services. That goes into ideology and ethos and mentality, and that is speaking in the abstract. Why aren't you hiring a dark skinned woman when she walks in the room and you say she blows you away? She s thriving because of the circumstances and create space and storytelling for her so when she thrives she s not thriving despite her circumstances. Murder was created by Shonda Rhimes, who is also Black. Davis is focusing on more roles for women like her through her company JuVee Productions, which she founded with her husband Julius Tennon. One such upcoming production is the historical epic The Woman King, which Davis will co-star in.
Davis has spoken out on this topic before, telling Vanity Fair in 2020, Not a lot of narratives are invested in Black humanity. They are invested in the idea of what it means to be black, but. It caters to the white audience. She was often told she wasn't pretty enough when she came up in Hollywood, as she noted to Variety. She said it makes me angry because the reasoning is obvious to her. Let's be honest. If I had my same features and I was five shades lighter, it would just be a little bit different. If I had blonde hair, blue eyes and even a wide nose, it would be even a little bit different from what it is now. We could talk about race, and we could talk about race. It pisses me off, and it has broken my heart — on a number of projects that I won't name.