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. 

Now very serious, Davis took the convo with Reid to the streets. 

“When sexual assault happens, women say that’s the day that they died,” she said in the pin-drop silent hall, letting her words take effect before continuing. “That trauma escalates into side effects that are life-changing — the body dysmorphia, the suicides, the addiction. You could go into any prison in this country, and I guarantee that you could trace it all back to sexual assault.”

So for Davis, it’s all about that “15- or 16-year-old girl who’s being pimped out on the street and trafficked in Detroit or Chicago” and “bringing her from the time she’s traumatized to getting that rape kit, to healing, to becoming a survivor, to becoming an overcomer. That's what we have to focus on.”

These stories aren't the stuff of escape fantasy, Davis explained to her audience in a non-judgmental manner. Known for being rebellious against this norm, the actor explained that she chose to become an actor in the spirit of playwright Arthur Miller. 

“He wanted people to recognize themselves on that screen, on that stage,” she said. “And too often [today], we water it down to make it palpable for you. It’s not sexy to see a beautiful woman onscreen who wakes up and doesn’t maybe want to have sex and doesn’t walk around in high heels and is actually not your fantasy and actually has been sexually assaulted and, actually, every time she has sex with you she has a great deal of pain, she has post-traumatic stress disorder. That’s not sexy.”

It's impossible to gauge how much progress Hollywood women are making in the recent wake of #MeToo.

The lineup of female directors being featured in next week's Tribeca Film Festival is an encouraging signal of positive impact from the #MeToo movement. 44 films representing 46 percent of all the films featured are directed by women. Note that a significant number of those films are in a category called Women's Issues. 

The lineup is very different from the lineup at late May's Cannes Film Festival where just three of the 17 films in the main competition are directed by women.