As formidable actresses go, few can rival the toweringly tall talent possessed by Viola Davis.
An Oscar, Golden Globe, and Emmy award winner, the actress continues to blaze a trail, stunning in performances across TV and cinema.
Now, she’s launched her own production company JuVee alongside husband Julius Tennon.
In the latest issue of Vanity Fair, Davis not only opens up about the venture, she waxes honest about many a topic – including regretting starring in 2012 smash ‘The Help.’ This, despite the film earning her an Academy Award.
Pics and quotes below…
On Her Entire Existence Being Activism:
“I feel like my entire life has been a protest. My production company is my protest. Me not wearing a wig at the Oscars in 2012 was my protest. It is a part of my voice, just like introducing myself to you and saying, ‘Hello, my name is Viola Davis.’”
On Playing Aibileen In ‘The Help’:
“I was that journeyman actor, trying to get in.
I cannot tell you the love I have for [the women behind the movie], and the love they have for me. But with any movie—are people ready for the truth?
Not a lot of narratives are also invested in our humanity They’re invested in the idea of what it means to be Black, but…it’s catering to the white audience. The white audience at the most can sit and get an academic lesson into how we are. Then they leave the movie theater and they talk about what it meant. They’re not moved by who we were.”
There’s no one who’s not entertained by The Help. But there’s a part of me that feels like I betrayed myself, and my people, because I was in a movie that wasn’t ready to [tell the whole truth].
The Help, like so many other movies, was “created in the filter and the cesspool of systemic racism.”
On The Pressing Need For Racial Equality In Hollywood:
“There’s not enough opportunities out there to bring that unknown, faceless Black actress to the ranks of the known. To pop her!” She names other performers—Emma Stone, Reese Witherspoon, Kristen Stewart—all “fabulous white actresses,” who have had “a wonderful role for each stage of their lives, that brought them to the stage they are now. We can’t say that for many actors of color.
[Similarly with magazines] they’ve had a problem in the past with putting Black women on the covers. But that’s a lot of magazines, that’s a lot of beauty campaigns. There’s a real absence of dark-skinned Black women. When you couple that with what’s going on in our culture, and how they treat Black women, you have a double whammy. You are putting us in a complete cloak of invisibility.”
A queen!
Check out our recent interview with Viola:
![Black Girls Rock! Beyonce, Viola Davis, Lizzo, & Samara Joy Enjoyed Historic Wins at the 2023 GRAMMYs [Year in Review]](https://thatgrapejuice.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/viola-davis-thatgrapejuice-2023-lizzo-grammys-beyonce-samara-joy-464x260.jpg "Black Girls Rock! Beyonce, Viola Davis, Lizzo, & Samara Joy Enjoyed Historic Wins at the 2023 GRAMMYs [Year in Review].")
![First Look Trailer: 'The Big Cigar' [André Holland-Led Apple TV+ Series]](https://thatgrapejuice.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/the-big-cigar-trailer-tgj-464x260.jpg "First Look Trailer: 'The Big Cigar' [André Holland-Led Apple TV+ Series].")
Bla-bla-bla…
All she is saying is that she wants black people at a piédestal.
Why talking about diversity when you are basically saying you want black people to replace white folks ? What about Asian, Arab and so on ? Aren’t they suffering too from racism ? And yet they are LESS represented in movies than black people.
SMH
That’s not what she’s saying at all. She’s speaking on what Black female actresses before and after her have stressed for decades. It’s not our job to speak for Asians, Arabs and other ethnicities. If they’re complacent with assimilating and their lack of representation, good for them.
BUT
We have BEEN in this country for hundreds of years. Through slavery, r***, Jim Crow, segregation, water hoses, erasure, experiments, we’ve been through it all. We are a resilient people. We helped to build this damn country. Even when we tried to build our own s***, they destroyed it. Well guess what? It’s 2020 and we aren’t sitting idly while receiving unfair treatment any longer. Give us roles. Pay us what we’re worth.
Viola said what the f*** she said.
Thank you for proving my point.
You are just as disgusting as the white people you denounces.
Other ethnicities have been killed and r**** for centuries too and yet you act like you are the only one suffering. Then i hope you will learn one day, EVERYONE deserves respect and dignity. Viola is a rich and healthy woman. WTF does she know about suffering ? She certainly did accept the money for The Help and now she is crying about that because it is fashionable to do so.
You are basically begging white executive and white bosses to give black people some roles.
Lool you just LOVE being oppressed.
Anyway, black people have been in movies in no degrading roles for decades so just STFU.
Obviously they are happy with they’re at otherwise they would be in the frontlines complaining and demanding change right along with black people. But too busy trying to be white adjacent or assimilating. So f*** their representation. Black people gone get theirs regardless. They already rebooting a famous tv show with a whole black family 🤷🏽♀️🤷🏽♀️
Tyty you sound stupid af.
You are talking about being white adjacent when black people are crying to white folks because they need them to be representated? Looooool.
Can’t you understand that rebooting every classic WHITE led movies and tv shows with black folks is NOT progress ? It is basically their way is saying you don’t worth sh!t so they will give you a recycled script so you can shut up and be happy.
Not very bright are you being white adjacent and wanting representation as black people without assimilation is two different things. You’re just jealous that whatever ethnicity you belong to are too lazy to get the representation you think they deserve. That ain’t Black peopleS problem take that up with your lazy ass people. That complaining you’re trying to mock is yielding results whereas your oppression olympics got you mad and bitter and still nowhere to be seen on tv, movies and award shows. 🤷🏽♀️🥴
Jealous of what ? Of black people begging white people for better representation ?
Thanks but no thanks :). I am just pointing out your evilness and hypocrisy.
tyty I know that you are Jasmine + Hmmm… + 1988 so why don’t you just go back to your Jasmine profile?
This fool!
She’s a black woman talking about and asking for black representation, especially for black women.
If you of a different race (let’s say Asian), feel underrepresented and marginalized, then form up and DEMAND the representation instead of talking up on black people. If you don’t feel the need for representation, then shut the f*** up and let black people demand for what they are owed, especially as a race that is crucial to the very being of America.
Black people aren’t “begging” white execs for rep, they are asking/demanding it as they should while also creating/producing black execs to further raise our voices. Learn the difference cow!!
Shut up.
Black folks are never happy. You have been in movies, comics and tv shows for DECADES.
You are the one acting like a cow and want black characters to be flawless when you are definitely BEGGING white leaders in Hollywood for revelancy. Keep playing the victims you fool.
No you confused dimwit.
Black representation has been relegated to the background in plenty media, along with other non-white races. The fact that you can pick out a few here and there does not equal representation clown.
How many black characters appeared properly in top comics, created by black comic creators. Read up on the history of the character “Blue Marvel”, and try and gain sense dolt.
Black people can ask for representation if they like, you can seat down and shut up or assimilate… Whatever works for your clown ass, not us though.
Just shut up and stop sounding ridiculous.
You have been sold by your own people who agreed to portray s***** characters for money and you have the nerve to demand anything ? Some you are the biggest joke ever.
Stop playing the victim card and grow the f up
Lol dumb f***! Of course like the Clown you are, you reiterate your strong confused racist misconceptions on slavery simply because it hurts you to see black people ask for things. Your poor impact on anything is so laughable.
What does s**** trade even have to do with this conversation? Is that supposed to be a jab? Yikes, poor fool try again. You wish you made sense.
You wish you had some form of worth but like your comments you are bottom or the barrel waste with no sense to any statement that oozes from your dull mind.
I didn’t talk about slavery which proves you are the delusional piece of shat I knew you were.
You are just like the white people you can’t stand, you want people to think blacks are superior instead of wanting equality you disgusting p**.
Lol again, all this talk from a brainless illiterate p**. What does it mean when you say “sold by your own people”…. On what? An idea, that makes zero sense cretin. Are you daft? No you definitely are daft, but are you that daft?
Again, you are simply just a confused pressed fool, who can’t speak up for themselves. If you want visibility say so. If you are fine the way your bum ass life is especially regarding representation, then remain that way.
Imagine having nothing better to do than being mad and skunking around black related posts, on a black owned site and on black issues that your non-existent brain can not even comprehend. Lol remain mad, we know we always have the rest of the world bothered by merely existing, cretin.
Annalise Keating you need to stop. Olivia Pope can help you
As much as I love Viola Davis as an actress, this interview is annoying. The Help was an incredible movie that told stories lived by our elders and ancestors, and yes, I think white people did get it. What else did she think should have been in the movie, and exactly why does she think she is so far above her character in The Help?
Not that many actors and actresses make a long career of it, and that is proportionally true for thespians of color.
That’s not what she’s saying. The stories lived by our elders were much harsher and far, far more tragic than movies like this will lead you to believe if you don’t know the history. And Viola is saying that when we make movies like this, we always feel the need to downplay that in some areas and not be explicit about how it really was, in order to make it more digestible for white people and even to avoid offending them. And that compromises the story itself. So yes, white people did “get it”. But that’s her point. They were supposed to. Because movies like that cater to them. What she thinks needs to happen is that we need to tell our stories, with NO consideration about how white people will feel about it. How they’re gonna take it shouldn’t matter. Tell the truth, don’t sugar coat, or clean up anything. Don’t overemphasize white sympathizers and champion them as being courageous and heroic or perpetuate a white savior complex to make white viewers feel better (looking at you 12 years a s****). It’s okay to be very clear about what happened and who was to blame. Because it’s the TRUTH. Otherwise don’t even bother making the movie.
Nobody cares what you have to say troll.
@Clarkson, you’re the REAL Troll, take your medication 😂
Some of the abuse the black women suffered was written off with humor, so I can understand bad feelings about that, but I also think the racist ideals shared by some of the white characters sent a clear and appropriate message to viewers. Viola has repeatedly dogged The Help… but then she signed up for Troop Zero.
Octavia Spencer won an Oscar for The Help. Viola Davis won an Oscar for Fences.
I am RICH, I am FAMOUS, I won an Emmy for a TV show I STARRED in, I won an OSCAR, but WAAAH, WAAAH WAAAH….I aint’t enough!” Please, when I watched the terrible Troop Zero where she pronounced “children” as “churin” I gave up.
Preach it
Honestly I can’t see anything in the cover. Did they dim the light or something?????