“The way people commit to Air Force One, Die Hard, Sigourney Weaver in Alien—I want them to commit to me. There is no closet in the studios filled with scripts for young African-American actresses, for older African-American actresses, for any actress of color. They’re not there; there is a sort of bartering for our worth in narratives. Me being worthy of anyone’s time in the theater is me breathing.”
-Viola Davis, episode 412 of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
Before Viola Davis (How to Get Away with Murder) became an EGOT-winning actor, she was an observer. Her work takes the human experience and transmutes it, offering a mirror and a window into ourselves.
Today, we sit to unpack her recent, liberating projects in The Woman King (4:24) and G20 (4:50), the formative years she spent growing up in Rhode Island (13:52), and how she captured those familial memories in her 2022 memoir Finding Me (17:12). Then, we talk about Viola’s start as a performer (23:40), what she learned attending Juilliard (31:57), and the quagmire she faced as a Black actor emerging on Broadway and in Hollywood post-graduation (35:10).
On the back-half, Davis reflects on a scene from August Wilson’s play Seven Guitars (37:50), her singular experience acting alongside Meryl Streep in Doubt (47:25), and the ways her life transformed during Shonda Rhymes’ How to Get Away with Murder and Steve McQueen’s Widows (53:00). To close, Viola shares her views on legacy (1:01:05) and how she finds her way back home, each and every day (1:05:20).
Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at mail@talkeasypod.com.
Watch this conversation on YouTube:
Show-notes:
- Watch Viola in G20, available exclusively on Prime Video.
- Read her memoir Finding Me.
- See more of her work in Air, The Woman King, How to Get Away with Murder, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Widows, Fences, The Help, and Doubt.
- Learn about her company JuVee Productions.
- Hear Toni Morrison discuss writing.
- Follow Viola on Instagram, Threads, and Facebook.
- For more talks, find our episodes with Joaquin Phoenix, Michelle Williams, and Tom Hanks.
- Order your Talk Easy mug in cream and navy or our vinyl record with Fran Lebowitz.
Illustrations by Krishna Shenoi. Reference photograph by Virginie Khateeb.
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