Viola Davis: From the slum to the woman of color who owns many movie records

Coming from an impoverished background, Viola Davis overcame adversity to become the first woman of color to win an Emmy Award for lead actress for her role in the television series "How To Get Away With Murder."

A destitute childhood

Viola Davis was born in 1965 in South Carolina, USA, into a family with no artistic tradition. Her father worked as a horse trainer, and her mother worked as a maid.

She was born on her grandmother's farm, which was once a slave plantation in South Carolina. Not long after her birth, the family moved to Rhode Island and lived in an abandoned building. Every night, Viola and her relatives have to sleep in the sight of rats running around them.

The actress told People that her childhood growing up in a neighborhood "had no plumbing, no heating or even electricity. The house was dilapidated and the rats were running." Despite the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Viola Davis' family was still discriminated against because of the color of their skin. The actress recalled, "People never shared the same faucet that we used. They called us harsh words."

The house was so poor that there was not enough food and at times Viola was only allowed to eat lunch at school. She said: "We didn't have anything at all. We're smart kids but we smell good at school."

When Viola was 11 years old, she enjoyed watching Cicely Tyson act in the psychological drama The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974). "It was the first time I saw an actor who looked like my mother."

Overcoming poverty complexes and big dreams of becoming an actress, Viola Davis has been working hard every day on the path of acting. From a theater actress, she encroached on cinema and successively achieved success.

Her interest in movies came to Viola Davis when she was in her first year of high school. When a representative from the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre visited her classroom and asked if there were any students who wanted to be actors, Viola Davis didn't hesitate to raise her arm.

The actress explained her decision: "When you're in a very difficult situation, you're not afraid of the road ahead. My dreams are much bigger than my fears."

Achievements

Viola Davis played small roles in several films and television series in the late 1990s and early 2000s, before winning a Tony Award for Best Actress for her role as Tonya in the 2001 Broadway play King Hedley II played by August.

Wilson, ed. Viola Davis' breakthrough in film came in 2008, when her role in the film Doubt earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Greater success came to Davis in the 2010s. She won her second Tony Award for Best Actress for her role as Rose Maxson in August Wilson's play Fences when it was recast. Then for playing a maid in the 1960s in the comedy-drama "The Help" (2011), Davis received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress and also won a SAG Award.

In 2014, Davis began playing attorney Annalise Keating on the ABC drama How to Get Away with Murder. This is the most famous role to bring Viola Davis' name to a global audience. In 2015, thanks to her role as Annalise Keating, she became the first woman of color to win a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

In 2016, Davis landed the role of Amanda Waller in the superhero film Suicide Squad and reprised her role as Rose Maxson in the film adaptation of the play Fences, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She went on to receive a BAFTA nomination for her starring role in the film Widows (2018). In 2020, Viola Davis played blues singer Ma Rainey in Chadwick Boseman's final film title Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

Viola Davis is one of the actors who achieved the title of "Tripple Crown of Acting". This is not an official title, but a phrase used to pay homage to artists who have won all 3 awards including Academy Award, Primetime Emmy Award (Award for achievement in a television program) and Tony Award (Award for achievement in Broadway).

So far, only 24 stars have achieved the Tripple Crown of Acting. All of them have not only proven themselves talented, but also talented, respected by artists. In November 2020, Viola Davis was named No. 9 among the 25 greatest actors of the 21st century by the NY Times.

Former DreamWorks President and CEO Stacey Snider commented, "You can't take your eyes off every time Viola Davis is on screen. Everyone should remember that success came to Davis not overnight. She has played quite a few different small roles and gradually won the hearts of fans." For Viola Davis, acting is passion: "When it comes to acting, I get to be myself."

In addition to her remarkable artistic career, Viola Davis is also a well-known social activist. In 2012, Viola and her husband, Julius Tennon (African-American) founded JuVee Productions, which supports actors with basic legal knowledge to protect their rights when exploited, especially actresses of African descent. Since 2014, Davis has collaborated with the Hunger Is campaign to help eradicate child hunger across America.

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