Viola Davis Recalls Criticism Of Her Looks From Other Black Actors
Acclaimed actor Viola Davis describes past insults from other Black actors about her looks. The stage, screen, and television star, universally lauded as one of the greatest performers of all time, was the first African-American to receive the «Triple Crown of Acting:» an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Tony Awards. From 2014 to 2020, Davis appeared as Annalise Keating in ABC's legal thriller, How To Get Away With Murder. For her performance, Davis became the first Black woman to win the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
A star persona characterized by poise and intelligence, Davis has racked up an impressive amount of iconic roles even outside of her How to Get Away With Murder stint. Most recently, she reprised her DCEU role of Amanda Waller in both The Suicide Squad and its HBO Max spinoff Peacemaker, and she starred opposite Sandra Bullock in the Netflix film The Unforgivable. Davis will next be seen in the Showtime anthology The First Lady, where she plays Michelle Obama.
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A recent poignant and nuanced profile from The New York Times explores Davis' life, in particular underscoring the complex implications of an important turning point in her career — a call from television producer Shonda Rhimes offering Davis the lead role in How to Get Away With Murder. However, comments denigrating her appearance from other Black actors around the time of the offer plagued Davis. The profile specifically writes, "A friend told her she overheard some male and female actors, all Black, saying she wasn’t pretty enough to pull it off." The moment marked a fraught climax in Davis' career in that, for the first time, she wasn't able to
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