Viola Davis Tells Women in the World She Was #MeToo Before It Became A Hash Tag

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Viola Davis Tells Women in the World She Was #MeToo Before It Became A Hash Tag

Two of AOC's favorite women were in the house Thursday night, when MSNBC host and author Joy-Ann Reid sat down with Viola Davis at the David H. Koch Theater in Lincoln Center at the close of the first day of the 2018 Women in the World Summit. The Hollywood Reporter recaps the exchange. 

Davis spoke positively about changes coming to Hollywood, saying: “Yes, I do see a moment becoming a movement. I do see a conversation happening. .. . I am a producer, and in the producing realm, people are always looking for female-driven narratives."

“They’re very conscious about hiring female directors. Women are much more aggressive out there in terms of getting what they want. Now we are bold. ... We’re raising a defense fund for women so if they want to prosecute their predator, it’s there for them.”

Continuing in her positive conversational vein, Davis said:  “I see women wanting to be the change that they want to be. Now me, I’ve always been aware because I was involved in the movement before it was a hashtag." Davis was referencing her work with the rape treatment center at UCLA, headed by Gail Abarbanel. 

Virginia Khateeb Flashes Viola Davis In 'Strong Statements' About Black Women For Porter Edit, March 2, 2018

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Virginia Khateeb Flashes Viola Davis In 'Strong Statements' About Black Women For Porter Edit, March 2, 2018

Actor Viola Davis is styled by Catherine Newell-Hanson in 'Strong Statements', lensed by Virginie Khateeb for Porter Edit March 2, 2018./ Hair by Jamika Wilson; makeup by Autumn Moultrie

Viola Davis speaks with honest, compelling and carefully-chosen words, as if every moment before an audience or interview readers is precious and not to be squandered over frivolous small talk. "Authenticity is her rebellion," Viola Davis tells Ajesh Patalay. 

When she won an Emmy in 2015 for her role as law professor Annalise Keating in ABC's hit series 'How To Get Away with Murder', Davis didn't bask in the achievement of being the first black woman to win an Emmy in the Lead Actress category.

Viola Davis Honored As Harvard Foundation's 'Artist Of The Year' 2017

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51-year-old actor Viola Davis accepted Harvard Foundation's Artist of the Year 2017 award from Harvard Professor of Neurology, Dr S. Allen Counter
 

The awards for actor Viola Davis continue to pile up, as she was named Harvard's Artist of the Year 2017. Davis, who was named Best Supporting Actress for her role in 'Fences' at the Oscars earlier in the week, acknowledged her award at the Harvard Foundation's Cultural Rhythms Festival. 

In her acceptance speech, Davis talked about her years at Julliard, a transformative experience she had as a student abroad in the Gambia, and the power of the arts. The New Yorker focused on Davis' Gambia experience in a December 2016 profile on the artist. 

. .. the summer after her second year, Juilliard gave her a grant for a two-week study of dance, music, and folklore in Gambia. The experience was an antidote to the school’s orthodoxy. In Gambia, witnessing traditional ceremonies—baby naming, food preparation—Davis experienced communities in which art was not separated from life. “It wasn’t about technique; it was about the soul. In their zest for life, their need to connect to each other and to God—everything they did was done with extreme passion,” she said.

Meryl Streep & Viola Davis Are Fast Friends Since Meeting In 2008 Film 'Doubt'

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Close friends Meryl Streep and Viola Davis

Moving towards the stage to accept her award for best supporting actress at Sunday night's Oscars, Viola Davis stopped to give Meryl Streep an affectionate kiss and hug. Vanity Fair writes that their friendship is one of the most public and vocally supporting relationships in Hollywood. 

Streep and Davis first worked together in the 2008 film 'Doubt'. Accepting her 2009 SAG award for best actress in 'Doubt', Streep channeled all her diva powers, calling out "the gigantically gifted Viola Davis." Raising her arms to the heavens, Streep implored the audience, "My God, somebody give her a movie!". Three years later Davis starred in 'The Help' and was nominated for Best Actress, only to lose to . . . Meryl Streep, who won for 'The Iron Lady'. Such an event would dampen the enthusiasm of most friendships, but not these two women.

The next morning Streep donated $20,000 in Davis' name, shared between the Segue Institute for Learning, an in-need charter school in Davis's hometown of Rhode Island and a college-prep program Upward Bound.

When Davis received her Hollywood Walk of Fame star in January 2017, Streep opened the event, with choice comments about her friend. “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,” Streep said. She then went on to describe Davis’s ability to be “so alive she glistens” and to “write paragraphs with her eyes.”

Older Women Make Major Progress In 2015 Emmy Award Nominations

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Anne is reading …

Emmy Awar Nominations: Full List of 2015 Emmy NomineesVariety

15 Of The Emmys’ 18 Leading Actress Nominees Are Over 35 Huffington Post

The 2015 Emmy Nominees are noteworthy in the women’s category for age diversity. In the category for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, Amy Schumer is the youngest at 34, and Lily Tomlin at 75 replaces Betty White as the oldest nominee in the category. White was nominated at 69 for ‘Golden Girls’ in 1991. Tomlin costars with Jane Fonda in the Netflix show ‘Grace and Frankie’.

Two African American women in their 40s are nominated for lead actress in a drama — Taraji P. Henson and Viola Davis). Davis said in a roundtable for The Hollywood Reporter, “I had never seen a 49-year-old, dark-skinned woman who is not a size two be a sexualized role in TV or film… I’m a sexual woman, but nothing in my career has ever identified me as a sexualized woman. I was the prototype of the ‘mommified’ role.”

Zeba Blay writes for Huff Po:

Hollywood perpetuates the straight male fantasy that every woman who is on screen, no matter her age or station in life, should be “fuckable” (in the eyes of white heterosexual male viewers). But this year’s Emmy nominees prove that pandering to that kind of audience is unnecessary and boring — there’s so much more out there. Davis doesn’t have to play the mom or the “Law & Order” judge just because she’s 49, and conversely Amy Schumer doesn’t have to play the dumb blonde type — instead, she can satirize it.

If substantial progress has been made on age and racial diversity, Variety reminds readers that only three women were nominated out of 23 in top writer-director categories. The Academy promoted this reality as a 60% increase in the number of women nominated, but Variety pans this fact “at a time when the market place for TV series is expanding rapidly.”

2014 Variety Power of Women Luncheon Winners & Their Activist Projects

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2014 Variety Power of Women Luncheon Winners & Their Activist Projects

AOC Smart Sensuality readers want more substance in their celebrity news — who cares that Jennifer Lopez and Reese Whitherspoon wore complementary dresses to the 2014 Variety Power of Women Luncheon Winners. 

Co-hosted with Lifetime TV, the October 10 luncheon paid tribute to Viola Davis and Donna Langley in addition to Fonda, Lopez and Witherspoon. We share details about these five women and the important philanthropy projects motivate them, because — for the most part — fashion bloggers don’t dig below the surface of who wore what.