The deep dive is back, and today we are turning
the journey of an artist whose success wasn't
merely achieved. It was earned through a continuous,
decades -long effort to redefine the boundaries
of American performance. We are diving into the
architecture of an icon, the actress and producer.
Viola Davis. It's such an essential exploration
for you because when we talk about success in
the entertainment industry, we often talk about
stars. But Davis is something else. Something
more. She's a monument. She is consistently recognized
critically and institutionally as one of the
greatest actors of her generation. Full stop.
I mean, we're talking about consensus greatness
here. The New York Times didn't just mention
her in passing. Oh, not at all. They ranked her
ninth on their 2020 list of the greatest actors
of the entire 21st century. She is shaping the
canon in real time. Absolutely. But what makes
this deep dive so critical is understanding the
sheer statistical impossibility of her achievement
set. I mean, she belongs to one of the rarest
clubs in competitive performance history. OK,
let's unpack this for a second. She's an EGOT
winner, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony. That's a club
that even today only includes, what, 18 people
who have won all four competitively? 18 people.
That's it. But the sources point out she has
achieved something even more specific, even rarer
than that. Right. This is the key distinction.
That's right. Davis is one of only three performers
in history, alongside the absolute legends Helen
Hayes and Rita Moreno, to achieve both the Triple
Crown of Acting and the EGOTY status. So for
you listening, if you're unfamiliar with the
nuance, the Triple Crown of Acting means winning
a competitive Emmy, Oscar, and Tony specifically
for acting roles. The EGOTY just adds the Grammys,
which can be for anything. Exactly. So to be
one of only three people to hold both titles,
meaning all four awards were won competitively
and the first three were specifically for acting,
that is just a... stunning convergence of talent
and opportunity. It speaks to her total mastery
of every single medium, stage, screen, and sound.
And it's not just the awards. Her influence extends
so far beyond the trophy shelf. Well, look at
Time magazine. They named her one of the 100
most influential people in the world. And not
just once. Not once, but twice. In 2012 and then
again in 2017. That tells you that her impact
is cultural and, frankly, political, not just
artistic. So that really sets the scale for our
deep dive today. Our mission is to trace the
trajectory of that success. We're not just listing
the awards. That would be easy. Right. We are
focusing on the incredible tension and contrast
built into her story from her profoundly difficult
roots in South Carolina and Rhode Island through
a rigorous but. critically questioned classical
training. And ultimately analyzing the specific
barrier -breaking roles that secured these history
-making titles. Exactly. We need to understand
how the woman born on the Singleton Plantation
evolved into a figure who, as Meryl Streep said,
carved a place on the Mount Rushmore of 21st
century acting. See, if we truly want to understand
the fire and the depth that Viola Davis brings
to her roles, we have to start at the very beginning.
You have to. Because her life is just defined
by these profound contrasts, Viola Davis was
born August 11, 1965, and the physical location
of her birth immediately injects this incredible
historical weight into her narrative. Where exactly
was she born? She was born in St. Matthew, South
Carolina, specifically on her grandmother's farm.
And that farm was situated on the Singleton Plantation.
Wow. That detail right there is a historical
lightning rod. To be born on land that was once
the site of enslaved labor. Yeah. And then to
become this universally recognized cultural titan.
That juxtaposition is almost impossible to grasp.
It speaks volumes about the arc of American history
in just one lifetime. Precisely. However, the
years that followed presented a different but
equally challenging form of struggle. Her family
moved north and she was raised in Central Falls,
Rhode Island. In conditions that she is described
with brutal honesty. Oh, she's incredibly candid.
She calls it abject poverty and dysfunction.
And when she speaks about her childhood, the
material is just unflinching. She wasn't just
poor. She describes living in environments that
were actively hostile to human dignity. She recalls
apartments that were rat infested and condemned.
So the material conditions of her upbringing
were incredibly harsh, placing this immense pressure
on the family. What did her parents do? Her father
worked as a horse trainer and her mother held
multiple demanding jobs, a maid, a factory worker,
a homemaker, just to support their large family.
Davis is the second youngest of six children.
Six kids. Six kids. And this environment wasn't
just about material deprivation. It was also
defined by a deep -seated awareness of social
injustice. And that awareness came directly from
her mother, right? It links her personal story
to the broader struggle for civil rights. Absolutely.
Her mother was an activist during the civil rights
movement, and Davis recalls a moment that is
just it's almost unbelievable in its early introduction
to political struggle. This is a story about
being in jail. Yes. She recalls being taken to
jail with her mother when she was only two years
old after her mother was arrested during a civil
rights protest. Two years old? Think about the
consciousness that moment instills, that the
fight for human dignity isn't some academic concept,
but a lived, immediate reality from your earliest
memories. So, okay, we have this environment
of extreme poverty, political awareness, and
struggle. The question then becomes... How does
that harsh reality translate into the delicate,
rarefied air of classical performance training?
Where did the path to the arts even begin? Well,
the initial path started locally, and it was
facilitated by some really crucial support programs.
She attended Central Falls High School, and she
credits her involvement in the arts there for
igniting her passion for stage acting. So she
found an outlet. She did, and she wasn't relying
solely on raw talent. She was involved in the
federal TRIO programs Upward Bound and TRIO Student
Support Services. And these are programs specifically
designed to help students from disadvantaged
backgrounds, right, to get them on the path to
college. Exactly. They helped them navigate that
high stakes journey. That support created the
pipeline for her. She first graduated from Rhode
Island College with a B .A. in theater in 1988,
which was a necessary foundational step. And
then came the big one, the institution that defines
elite American acting, the Juilliard School.
That's the pivot point. She spent four intense
years at Juilliard, graduating as a member of
the drama division group 22 from 89 to 93. And
Juilliard is where you receive that kind of formal
technical rigor that prepares you for Shakespeare,
for Chekhov, for the giants of the Western canon.
But this is also where we encounter one of the
key, most fascinating insights she revealed much,
much later in a 2025 interview. A really searing
critique of that very education. Real time unpacking
this because it's one of the most powerful and
potentially controversial statements she has
ever made about her career. She felt that her
rigorous training there primarily equipped her
to be a better white actress. It is a stunning
statement, but it's rooted in a deep, critical
analysis of theatrical tradition and, frankly,
systemic expectations. Her point wasn't that
the training was bad. No. She acknowledged the
technical benefits. Right. But that the curriculum's
foundational repertoire predisposes the actor
for a very specific type of role and a very specific
cultural voice. She felt perfectly trained for
classic roles from Shakespeare, Chekhov, O 'Neill,
and Strindberg. So what's the problem with that?
For her identity and for the types of stories
she felt she needed to tell. Because, she argued,
that formal technical training denies the human
being behind all that. Wow. It prioritizes technique
over inherent lived experience. She observed
that as a black actress in the industry, the
metric for success and for range often required
her to consistently perform white work. The implication
being that black actors are required to adapt
to a white cultural framework to prove their
versatility. Yes. Whereas white actors are often
just centered in that framework naturally. Exactly.
And the source material provides a clear, really
resonant example of this artistic disconnect.
She specifically mentioned Tennessee Williams.
What did she say about him? She said she could
do the best that I can with Tennessee Williams,
but he writes for fragile white women. It's not
me. She's not criticizing the beauty of his writing.
No, of course not. She's criticizing the professional
requirement that she contorts herself to fit
narratives that are fundamentally foreign to
her own life experience. This isn't just about
race. It's about authenticity and the soul of
the performance. This critique moves beyond just
personal frustration, then. It becomes this structural
condemnation of the drama curriculum itself.
It does. And here is where the thread connects
directly to the greatest triumphs of her career.
She opined that crucial black playwrights, specifically
August Wilson and Lorraine Hansberry, who documented
the complex, profound realities of black American
life, are often not studied in the same foundational,
rigorous way as O 'Neill or Shakespeare in these
elite institutions. So the work that spoke directly
to her soul, to her experience of poverty and
struggle, was marginalized in her classical education.
That's it. So she is basically saying, I was
given the tools of a master craftsman. but I
was only shown how to apply them to houses I
couldn't live in. That created a deficit, a hunger
for material that actually resonated. That deficit
becomes the driving force of her entire stage
career. She left Juilliard with world -class
technique, but her professional necessity was
to find the stories, the August Wilson stories,
that truly allowed her to leverage her lived
truth and not just her technical prowess. It's
a remarkable piece of self -reflection from someone
at the absolute pinnacle of her field. To essentially
say, the thing that made me famous was the thing
my school told me wasn't classical enough. So
the moment Davis steps out of that academic environment
and onto the professional stage, the narrative
tension we just discussed, it resolves itself
with just astonishing clarity. It really does.
The work she felt was missing. The work of August
Wilson immediately becomes the defining material
of her theatrical life. That immediate synergy
is what's so fascinating here. Her first professional
stage role was actually Shakespeare in 1992.
She played Dennis in an off -Broadway production
of As You Like It. Okay, so she starts with the
classics. But when she made her Broadway debut
in 1996, it was in an original August Wilson
play, Seven Guitars, where she played the character
Vera. And the critical praise she received for
Seven Guitars wasn't just, you know, polite applause.
Yeah. It was a realization that this material,
rooted in the black experience, allowed her talent
to fully bloom on the grandest stage. It established
her voice. It showed that the classical training
served her well. But it was the material that
reflected her reality that made her undeniable.
Right. We should also pause for a brief moment
of Hollywood reality check, though. While she
was establishing herself on stage, she gained
her crucial SAG card in 1996 for playing a nurse
who hands a vial of blood to Timothy Hutton in
The Substance of Fire. The classic one day, one
line role that every actor chasing that union
status knows so well. And the source material
confirms the compensation, $518. $518, exactly.
It's a fun anecdote, but it shows the hustle,
the sheer variety of work required to survive
in the industry, even as her artistic soul was
being nourished by August Wilson's poetry on
Broadway. Okay, now let's talk about the accolades.
This is where her journey to the Triple Crown
begins. She earns her first competitive Tony
Award in 2001. That Tony was for best featured
actress in a play. And crucially, the play was
another August Wilson masterpiece. King Hedley
II. Another Wilson play. And this was a challenging,
profoundly weighty role. She played Tanya, a
35 -year -old mother embroiled in the complex
struggles of poverty and survival, fighting fiercely
and eloquently for the right to abort a pregnancy.
The character of Tanya is just a vehicle for
such powerful social commentary, showcasing desperation
and strength in equal measure. It is. This performance
directly contradicts that idea of the fragile
white woman roles she talked about in her Juilliard
critique. This was pure, unadulterated human
resilience. And it gave her an opportunity to
put that sophisticated classical technique, the
breath control, the voice projection, the ability
to sustain dramatic tension into a story that
mattered deeply to her. That 2001 Tony win didn't
just mark the start of her Triple Crown. It validated
her artistic core. It proved that stories of
black American struggle are universal dramatic
material. Worthy of the highest classical honors.
Absolutely. And the connection to August Wilson
just deepens almost a decade later when she wins
her second competitive Tony. In 2010. In 2010,
she returned to Wilson's world for the revival
of Fences. This time, she wasn't in a supporting
role. She won Best Performance by a leading actress
in a play for playing Rose Maxim. Starring opposite
Denzel Washington. Who was also directing. This
performance just solidified her position as a
generational stage talent. I remember the critical
reaction to that performance. It was immediate
and it was overwhelming. Ben Brantley, the legendary
theater critic for The New York Times, called
her performance extraordinary. He didn't just
praise it. He practically prophesied her future,
suggesting that she would pick up another Tony.
And of course she did. She did. This victory
was a defining career moment, distinguishing
her as an actor who can carry the central emotional
weight of a monumental drama. So if we just pause
here and connect the dots back to everything
we've talked about. The picture is undeniable.
It's crystal clear. Her two competitive Tony
Awards, the foundation of her eventual triple
crown achievement, were secured through performances
and works written exclusively by August Wilson.
The exact type of Black American playwright she
noted was neglected in her formal drama training.
It's a profound irony, isn't it? The establishment
defined excellence one way, based on a Eurocentric
canon. But her greatest, most critically acclaimed
state's work was rooted in a deep humanist tradition
that she had to seek out for herself. She found
her voice and it was the voice of August Wilson.
It's just an incredible synergy. The actor who
challenged the curriculum. proved the marginalized
work was the source of her own classical greatness.
So while she was cementing this legendary status
on Broadway, her career trajectory in film and
television was a slower, more deliberate ascent.
It was defined by small, powerful roles that
eventually led to domination. Her early film
career showcases a really interesting pattern
of collaboration. She worked frequently with
director Steven Soderbergh. right around the
turn of the millennium. She did. She appeared
in films like Solaris and the critically acclaimed
ensemble Drama Traffic. Right. And for an absolute
piece of trivia that highlights how ubiquitous
she was becoming, she provided the uncredited
voice of the parole board interrogator in the
iconic opening scene of Ocean's Eleven in 2001.
Which Soderbergh produced. Which he produced.
She also had small parts in films like Kate and
Leopold and Aunt Wone Fisher, often playing nurses,
officers, or authoritative figures, those roles
that typically go unnoticed. But the moment that
truly forced Hollywood to pause and take notice
of her cinematic power was the 2008 film Adaptation
of Doubt. Ah, yes. This is a perfect example
of how a limited performance delivered with absolute
precision can just eclipse an entire film. That
role as Mrs. Miller was a cinematic explosion.
It earned her her first Academy Award nomination
for Best Supporting Actress. The source material
for the film was already critically acclaimed,
but Davis's performance, which consists of just
a few intense scenes, gave the film its emotional
core. This is the kind of performance that becomes
legendary precisely because of its brevity. It
does. The late great film critic Roger Ebert
summed it up perfectly. He stated that her performance
lasts about 10 minutes, but it is the emotional
heart and soul of doubt. Wow. And he didn't stop
there. He specifically praised her scene with
Meryl Streep, describing it as a confrontation
of two equals that generates terrifying power.
Two equals. I mean, the recognition of that performance,
an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and SAG nominations,
it wasn't just an acknowledgement of her talent.
It was a signal to casting directors everywhere
that she could deliver maximum impact with minimal
screen time. It established her as a genuine
cinematic heavyweight. It was the inflection
point, really. It was. After decades of grinding
on stage and taking smaller roles, Doubt catapulted
her into the conversation as a bankable cinematic
force. But after conquering the stage and establishing
this brief but unforgettable power on film, she
made a fascinating pivot into the world of long
-form episodic television. That pivot ushered
in the How to Get Away with Murder era, which
began in 2014. And this was a massive undertaking.
A network legal drama, executive produced by
Shonda Rhimes, a titan of modern television.
Starring as the formidable and deeply complicated
criminal defense attorney and professor, Annalise
Keating was a monumental shift from the stage.
She committed to six seasons of demanding weekly
character work. And the power of the show wasn't
just in the plot twists. No, it was in Davis's
ability to maintain the high wire tension and
the emotional vulnerability of Keating week after
week after week. And this is where the Emmy achievement
comes in, which secured the second component
of her Triple Crown. That Emmy win in September
2015 was genuinely historic. Davis became the
first African -American actress to win the Primetime
Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a
Drama Series. The first. Think about that for
a moment. decades into television history and
she was the first to achieve this particular
competitive honor in the lead drama category
so this completion of the emmy requirement following
her two competitive tony's left only the oscars
standing between her and the triple crown But
let's just pause on the significance of the HTGA
-WM run itself. It wasn't just about one win.
Not at all. It was about sustained excellence
and the breaking of barriers regarding the portrayal
of complex, messy, and commanding black female
leads in network television. Yeah, Annalise Keating
was not a simple hero. Not at all. She was deeply
flawed, powerful, and often ruthless. And Davis
just inhabited that complexity, earning two consecutive
Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance
by a Female Actor in a Drama Series in 2014 and
2015. And that consecutive recognition from her
peers, the SAG Award, is such a potent indicator
of how highly her work was regarded within the
industry itself. Exactly. She received another
Primetime Emmy nomination in 2016 for the role,
confirming that the performance was not So her
tenure as Annalise Keating really elevated the
show, elevated the Shondaland brand, and more
importantly, elevated the conversation around
representation and character depth in television.
So she is two -thirds of the way to the Triple
Crown Tony -secured, Emmy -secured television
dominance established. And the final hurdle,
the Oscar, was cleared by returning to the material
that defined her stage mastery. August Wilson.
It's a beautiful narrative symmetry, isn't it?
The fences double dip. In 2016, she reprised
her Tony -winning role as Rose Maxson for the
film adaptation. Again, with Denzel Washington.
Once again, directed by and co -starring Denzel
Washington. The performance had already been
road tested and perfected on Broadway, but transferring
that nuanced stage performance to the intimacy
of film required a complete retuning of her acting
instrument. And the awards community responded
by crowning her unequivocally. She swept the
supporting actress category for the 2016 film
year. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting
Actress, the Golden Globe, the Screen Actors
Guild Award, and the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting
Role. It was a clean sweep. Oscar win was the
final piece that completed the triple crown of
acting? It was. This made her the first Black
performer in history to achieve the triple crown
of acting. The Tony in 2001, the Emmy in 2015,
the Oscar in 2017 for the 2016 film. That is
not just an award. It's a permanent marker in
performance history. And that Oscar nomination
wasn't just a win. It was another milestone in
her record -breaking nomination history. The
2016 nomination for Fences was her third overall.
This made her the first black actress in history
to reach three Academy Award nominations. She
was consistently setting precedents simply by
showing up and delivering monumental performances.
Now, we absolutely must discuss the other major
film role that brought her profound recognition,
but also caused her deep personal conflict. Yes.
Her second Oscar nomination in 2011 for The Help,
where she played Abilene Clark. This is such
a critical point that speaks to her artistic
integrity. It is perhaps the most compelling
insight into her professional ethics. Because
despite earning a Best Actress in a Leading Role
nomination, a career highlight for most actors,
Davis later expressed profound professional regret
overtaking the role. Why? What was the core of
her regret regarding a film that brought her
such immense visibility and critical acclaim?
She stated quite powerfully that she felt she
had betrayed herself. The source material highlights
that her issue was not with her collaborators,
whom she admired greatly. It was with the narrative
itself. She felt the story and the portrayal
were not truthful about the actual lives, experiences
and agency of the black characters. She felt
the film centered the white perspective rather
than providing a deep, complex depiction of the
lives of black domestic workers in the South.
That is a fascinating conflict. It highlights
the tension between maximizing a career opportunity
and maintaining your artistic conscience. And
she chose integrity over celebration. And that
decision. To speak publicly about regretting
a role that delivered her a massive platform,
it just underscores her commitment to authenticity,
echoing her earlier critique of Juilliard. She's
not willing to just be a technically brilliant
performer. The story has to serve a greater truth.
It has to, and that commitment to narrative truth
continued to drive her record -breaking milestones
into the next decade. Okay, so what came next?
In 2020, she demonstrated her continuing power
by receiving her fourth Academy Award nomination,
this time for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
playing the fiery blues icon in Mara Rainey's
Black Bottom. And this single nomination broke
two major records instantly. It did. She became
the most nominated black actress in the history
of the Academy Awards, surpassing her own record.
And, crucially, she became the first black actress
to be nominated for Best Actress more than once.
That latter record is staggering. It confirms
her place in the absolute upper echelon of cinematic
leads, shattering a ceiling that had existed
for decades. And she also won the SAG Award for
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in
a Leading Role from Marini, once again earning
that crucial recognition from her peers. Outside
of these deep, complex dramas, though, her modern
filmography shows her adaptability. I mean, she
can move seamlessly between high art and high
octane global franchises. She has become a staple
of the DC Universe as the cold, amoral government
operative Amanda Waller. She's played the character
across major titles, Suicide Squad in 2016, The
Suicide Squad in 2021, and Black Adam in 2022.
And she's still doing it. Still doing it. She
also reprised the voice role in the animated
series Creature Commandos in 2024 and is confirmed
to return in the rebooted DC Universe. This longevity
in a major cinematic universe really speaks to
her cultural relevance. But she balances that
massive franchise work with demanding, prestige,
dramatic roles, like in Steve McQueen's heist
Thriller Widows in 2018. That film was a masterclass
in tension and leadership. Eric Cohn, a noted
film critic, emphasized that the film largely
belongs to Davis. The actress has never been
more commanding. And then, in 2022... The Woman
King. Yes, she starred in and championed the
historical action film The Woman King, playing
General Naniska, the leader of the all -female
military unit, the Agoge. This was a physical,
emotional, and powerful commitment to bringing
a marginalized historical narrative to the blockbuster
stage. And speaking of bringing history to life,
she also tackled the daunting task of playing
former First Lady Michelle Obama in the 2022
series The First Lady. That is a role that comes
with an intense amount of public scrutiny. It
certainly did. The portrayal drew criticism on
social media, especially concerning specific
mannerisms. But Davis, true to form, responded
by doubling down on her commitment to artistic
choice. Right. She didn't apologize for it. No.
She called the disapproval incredibly hurtful,
but defended her process, emphasizing that it
is my job as a leader to make bold choices. It
shows that even when portraying a beloved public
figure, she prioritizes courageous interpretation
over pleasing every single critic. So we have
charted the Triple Crown, the Tony, the Emmy,
the Oscar. We now arrive at the final exclusive
component that places her name alongside the
absolute titans of performance. Yeah. The competitive
Grammy. The G in EPO. What was the last piece
of the EGOT puzzle and how did she secure it?
The final piece was the Grammy Award, and she
achieved it in February 2023. She won the award
for Best Audiobook Narration and Storytelling
Recording. And the material was? The material
was her 2022 memoir, Finding Me. That's a highly
specific but a really fitting category. The EGOT
requires a competitive win, and this award acknowledges
her ability to perform narrative, not just dialogue
or song. It's such a key distinction. The EGOT
is often completed through musical scores or
non -competitive awards, but Davis completed
hers with a competitive win for narrative storytelling,
cementing her power as an unparalleled communicator.
So the moment that trophy was lifted, the architecture
was complete. It was complete. She became the
18th person in history to achieve full competitive
EGOT status. And the memoir itself finding me
is inextricably linked to her literary and production
endeavors. Absolutely. Beyond the memoir, she
also ventured into children's literature, writing
the sequel to the classic picture book Corduroy,
titled Corduroy Takes a Bow, which was published
in 2018. I didn't know that. Yeah. She noted
that the beloved bear had always held a special
place in her life, first when she read the original
as a child and then reading it to her adopted
daughter, Genesis. And her life extends significantly
beyond her own performance and writing. She is
a powerhouse producer through Juvie Productions.
Which she co -founded with her husband, actor
Julius Ten. And Juvie Productions is such a critical
component of her legacy. It serves as a platform
to tell the exact kind of complex, truthful stories
she felt were missing from her classical education.
Their work ranges across film, television, and
digital content. Significantly, in December 2024,
the company received the inaugural Faith and
Spirituality in Entertainment Honor. This signals
a very clear mandate that their focus is not
solely on commercial success. No. but on producing
content that reflects deep human values, perhaps
tying back to the spiritual resilience required
to endure her childhood. Which brings us full
circle to her foundations. That rigorous and
often traumatic childhood, defined by poverty
and early activism, directly informs her profound
dedication to activism and philanthropy today.
That link is powerfully personal. Since 2014,
she has collaborated extensively with the Hunger
Is campaign, aiming to eradicate childhood hunger
across the country. And this isn't just a celebrity
endorsement. No, she uses her own lived history
as the fuel for this campaign. And her recollection
of that childhood hunger is truly stark, detailing
the desperate measures she had to take just to
survive. She was extremely candid about the daily
struggle, saying, I grew up in abject poverty.
I did everything that you could possibly imagine
to get food. I rummaged in the garbage cans I
stole from the local store constantly. She doesn't
couch the language. She describes the reality
of survival for a hungry child, which makes her
commitment to eradication, not just awareness,
a profound personal. mandate. She views eradicating
hunger as essential to giving every child a fair
chance at the American dream. And her philanthropy
isn't just global or national. She has continually
reinvested in Central Falls, Rhode Island, the
very place where she experienced those challenging
conditions. Her local support is unwavering.
When her hometown public library in Central Falls
was facing closure in 2011, she donated funds
to keep it open. Wow. In 2018, she donated funds
directly to her alma mater, Central Falls High
School, specifically for its theater program,
ensuring the next generation has access to the
arts that saved her life. And that focus on dignity
and health also extends to her partnership with
Vaseline. Right. She partnered with Vaseline
to promote the Vaseline Healing Project, which
provides dermatological care to those affected
by poverty globally. This project understands
that health care must include basic dignity.
And it connects back to her hometown. It does.
Reflecting her local commitment, this partnership
included sponsoring a free community health center
in Central Falls in 2016, providing essential
medical services. where she grew up. And her
activism, much like her mother's, has directly
confronted systemic issues of injustice. That
lineage of activism is so clear. In 2018, she
served as executive producer for Two Sides, a
documentary series that specifically explored
police brutality towards the African -American
community. So it's not abstract for her. No.
Whether through her production company, her presence
at events like the Women's March in Los Angeles
or her public advocacy on hunger, she is relentlessly
using the power of her position to affect social
change. The activism she witnessed as a two year
old child in the back of a jail cell is now manifested
in her status as a global producer and advocate.
So we have journeyed through an unparalleled
career. From being born on a plantation in South
Carolina and enduring years of poverty in Rhode
Island, to achieving total dominance across stage,
film, television, and narrative recording. It's
incredible. It is the definition of the American
dream, built not on luck, but on profound, unrelenting
talent and commitment to truth. And her success
isn't just measured by the EGOT, it's measured
by the ceilings she shattered. She holds the
record for most film wins for an actress at the
Screen Actors Guild Awards. Six overall. Six
overall SAG wins. She is the most awarded African
-American performer in that history. Her fourth
Oscar nomination made her the first actress of
color to achieve four nominations and the first
black actress to be nominated for Best Actress
more than once. She has continuously redefined
what high achievement looks like in the industry.
And the scope of her impact is perhaps best summarized
by her peer, Meryl Streep, when Davis received
her Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2017. Streep
didn't just praise the acting, she praised the
whole person. Streep stated that Davis has carved
a place for herself on the Mount Rushmore of
the 21st century. And critically, Streep pointed
out that Davis's importance is marked not just
by her unassailable, undeniable, deep and rich
and true gifts as an artist. By her character.
But by her willingness to speak about it and
take on responsibility for it. It is the integration
of the art and the activism that defines her.
So what does this all mean for you, the learner?
Watching the world of performance evolve, we
discussed how Viola Davis felt her rigorous Juilliard
training prepared her for the world of classical
white -centric drama. Yet we know without a doubt
that her most fundamental and career -defining
accolades, her two competitive Tony wins and
her Oscar win for the same role, are rooted in
the profound specificity of Black American life
as captured by August Wilson. It is a stunning
professional realization. The material she felt
was marginalized was the wellspring of her universal
glory. She has proved that the work focused on
the specific struggles and triumphs of Black
America is not niche, but deeply classically
universal. So now that she has achieved every
possible mainstream accolade, establishing her
power as definitive and universal, how will Viola
Davis's established power challenge the fundamental
assumptions about classical theater? and what
truly defines universal dramatic excellence in
the next generation of performers and playwrights.
Her legacy ensures that the answer will be far
broader than what was taught on her textbooks.
That is a provocative thought for you to mull
over until our next deep dive.