Viola Davis names her all-time favourite role
In 2016, Viola Davis effectively blew the doors off the US film industry when she won her first Oscar for Fences. Since then, she’s starred in everything from Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom to The Woman King, establishing herself as one of the greatest actors of the 21st century. Today, Davis is the most nominated Black woman in the history of the Academy Awards, though it would appear success is yet to wreck her modesty. Here, we join Davis as she names her favourite role of all time.
Viola Davis grew up surrounded by poverty and abuse. In the 1990s, she left that world behind to pursue a career in acting, winning a place at the prestigious Juilliard School, an institute she soon learned had been established for the set purpose of creating the “perfect white actor”.
“There is no set rule to how a character should be played,” she told The Guardian. “That was my issue with Juilliard. Whatever character I play, I’m not gonna play with the same palette as my white counterparts because I’m different. My voice is different. Who I am is different.”
The film industry’s white centrism stalked Davis throughout her early career. The stage offered a wider variety of roles, but when it came to TV, Davis frequently found herself playing “drug-addicted mothers”, “the best friends of white women”, and other non-sexualised roles. Things started to change when she won the lead in How To Get Away With Murder, which offered her the chance to play Annalise Keating, a refreshingly normal defence attorney.
The first season of How To Get Away With Murder aired in 2014. That same year, Davis was cast as the mother of James Brown – played by Chadwick Boseman – in Get On Up. She would later name the role as her all-time favourite. “I enjoyed being in Mississippi,” she told The Guardian. “I loved Chadwick, loved Chadwick. It was sort of awesome.”
Boseman and Davis would go on to work together on Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, where the pair grew even closer. Discussing the actor’s death during an interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Davis recalled breaking down when she heard the news. “What I hold onto with Chad is that he lived his life his way,” she said. “I would say his professional life as absolutely paralleled his personal life, that’s my guess, in terms of how he lived with the utmost integrity.”
