Viola Davis: “It took me years to convince myself that I had value”

The actress is a collection of accolades and accolades, and she will soon play Michelle Obama. Revenge on a miserable childhood.
First, there is his voice. Serious. Deep, coming from the bowels.
His tone calm, calm. Then his words.
Measured, thoughtful. She takes the time to say some more slowly, insisting on a letter. “Wwwwwoman”, “llllllove”, “llllllife”.
For others, it emphasizes a syllable. “ACTing”, “PEOple”, “PAssion”.
Then there are his sentences, said with so much confidence and determination that they sound like philosophical quotes.
“The goal of my life is not success. It’s about living an existence that has meaning. “
She expresses herself with the gestures of a political figure. Arms sometimes open, sometimes raised.
“No, the Black Lives Matter movement in June was not my first protest.
My feeling is that my whole life is a protest. She speaks while standing erect, her head held high, her muscular body wrapped in a sublime fuchsia pink suit.
When she talks about her childhood or her career, her face is serious, closed, almost cold.
But cast her on movies, the arts or love, and she bares her teeth with a huge smile.
His whole face lights up. Its energy, traversing the 9000 kilometers which separate Paris from Los Angeles, pierces the screen through which we
Viola Davis is a force of nature. She prefers to describe herself as “shy, introverted”: “Not many people know that I can be a lot of fun too.
Come have a party with me and my husband, and you will see! She hates the word “icon”, a status that several magazines and feminist organizations have attributed to her for years.
“It doesn’t do me any good to get on a movie set and say, ‘Hey, guys, I’m an icon!’ That’s no help to me. Every time I start a new role, I am a blank page.
I’m seized with impostor syndrome, this fear of not doing well. “
At 55, Viola Davis doubts her talent. Yet she has received over a hundred awards throughout her career. Ms.
Davis is even a member of the very small club of what Hollywood calls “The Triple Crown of Acting,” triple crowned with Tony, Emmy and Oscar, the highest accolades in theater, on television and At the movie theater.
Trained at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York, she knows how to do everything but she is first and foremost a woman on the stage.
From her first Broadway appearance in the late 1990s, she was nominated for the equivalent of the Molière Prize in the United States.
She will win two. For “Doubt”, in 2008, she appeared for seven minutes, alone, opposite Meryl Streep. The Oscar Academy will judge that this short performance is sufficient to justify his first nomination.
Streep will say, “Someone give Viola Davis a movie! “It will be” The Color of Feelings “in 2011.
If Viola now regrets that this role did not portray black women at their true value, it still earned her a second Oscar nomination.
I don’t make films to look like a model but to restore dignity to my characters