Viola Davis Source

VIOLA DAVIS photographed by AB + DM Entertainment Weekly’s 2021 Oscars Issue

Okay, then if there’s no one like me - you think I’m that - you pay me when I’m worth. You give me what I’m worth.

First look at Viola Davis in The Woman King (2022), dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood

VIOLA DAVIS 2022 | Marcos Florentino & Kelvin Yule ph. for ELLE Brasil

— VIOLA DAVIS

-Viola Davis, on being worthy of success.

Viola Davis attends the red carpet during the 14th Rome Film Festival on October 26, 2019 in Rome, Italy

Viola Davis photographed by Robert Gauthier for Los Angeles Times, October 2011. 

Karla Souza and Viola Davis attend The Rape Foundation’s Annual Brunch on September 25, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California.

Viola Davis attends The Rape Foundation’s Annual Brunch on September 25, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California.

Viola Davis on her past bullies wanting to be her friend

Viola Davis cried to a wooden dummy

The internal sexism within womanhood is very ­predominant in Hollywood, because we all want to be ­successful. There’s a plug to it: You all have to be skinny! You all have to be pretty! You all have to be likable, because that’s the ­formula that works. On an ­executive level. On a power level. And it’s not always the same working with black people, because of the internalized racism. The colorism.

Viola Davis attends the 68th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater on September 18, 2016 in Los Angeles, California.

Viola Davis and her husband Julius Tennon make their way through LAX Airport on August, 2 in Los Angeles. (video)

I have an absolute understanding and awareness of the image I project, and there’s just not a lot of roles for women who look like me. Here’s the thing: We’re in crisis mode as black actresses. Not only in the sheer number of roles that are offered and that are out there, but in the quality of roles. When you only have two or three categories for black actresses, therein lies the problem.

Jessica Chastain and Viola Davis in The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her (2013)