50 Appropriate Ways to Celebrate Viola Davis' Birthday

Margaret and Anne Marie here, with suggestions of how best to rejoice in 50 years of national treasure VIOLA DAVIS...

1. Set something on fire with only the power of your measured, penetrating gaze
2. Look sensational in a jewel-hued gown
3. Drink a tall glass of bubbly while wearing said gown
4. Enter a room with unparalleled grace
5. Have a professional task you feel is beneath you? Pick it up and blow it out of the water. Because you can.
6. Make your coworkers look great
7. Give sage & loving advice. Or take someone else's
8. Pull up a dick pic on your phone, and accusingly approach strangers with it
   
   
   
    
9. Consider making a donation to the Segue Institute for Learning or the Hunger Is campaign, which are two of Viola Davis' preferred charities
10. Visit Rhode Island
11. Do a few sets of tricep curls 
12. Write a thank you note to Shonda Rhimes.
13. Paper your neighborhood with Emmy For Your Consideration ads.
14. Walk up to the most respected person in your chosen field and gracefully, modestly, utterly outshine them.
15. Outshine some nobodies too, just for fun
    
    35 more ways to celebrate after the jump!
    
    
16. Cut someone petty down to size
17. Throw a fiesta!
    
    
    
18. Convert a young member of your family into a lifelong Streep fan. 
19. Call a powerful woman in your life and thank her for the struggles she's overcome and the example she's set.
20. Launch a Kickstarter for that Barbara Jordan biopic Tony Kushner wrote for her.
21. Buy a ticket to Lila & Eve, in theaters now. (Consider ordering it for Video On Demand)
22. Pick up some mid-career Soderbergh (Out of Sight, Traffic, Solaris) and stay tuned for her Actressing at the Edges
23. Binge on all seven episodes of Law & Order: SVU in which she appeared.
24. Start a Twitter campaign to get that movie adaptation of Fences off the ground. With Viola in lead, naturally.
    
    
    
     
25. Read an August Wilson play (particularly Fences or King Hedley II, for which Viola won her two Tonys)
26. Invest in a trophy case
27. Break someone's heart with only a slight shift in your posture.
28. Waltz with a Clooney lookalike
29. Transcend.
30. Discuss superhero battle tactics while slicing into a steak
31. Give in to your conflicted feelings about superhero movies, now that Viola will be starring in a superhero movie.
32. Engage in some Dramatic Chalkboard Writing
33. Get yours
34. Wear a red leather jacket to a business formal occasion
35. Throw someone under the bus in a courtroom.
36. Rock a wig...
37. ...and rock natural hair...
38. ...And read up on the cultural significance of taking the wig off. 
    



39. Write a Game of Thrones spec script that includes a prominent role for a "Viola Davis Type" who gets to kill someone. With a spear.
40. Eschew false modesty. You've earned what you've got.
41. Use your childhood to fuel your art and honesty, and to inspire others.
42. Freak out a little bit over Prince
    
    
    
    
43. Fill her Twitter mentions with appreciation and joy
44. Get lost in a YouTube wormhole of warm and moving acceptance speeches
45. Serve someone ladybugs with a side of terror https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1x2SyhbHfc
46. Call out ageism, sexism, and racism in the entertainment industry
47. Support art made by women of color
48. Write "Academy Award Winner Viola Davis" thirteen times on thirteen pieces of paper and burn them each at midnight for thirteen consecutive nights
    
49. Love yourself. Surround yourself with people who respect you 
50. Dance channeling the joy in your heart over how lucky we are to have Viola Davis & her towering gift.

Comments

[Troy H.]

"Outshine some nobodies too, just for fun." -------------->DEAD.

Aside from the Fences film adaptation, which simply has to happen, I want to see her do a romantic comedy just to see if she can.

[John T]

I'd have given her both Oscars, and I am thrilled beyond thrilled every time I see her now. One of the most exciting actors working.

[brookesboy]

I loved her performance in The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby. Her scenes with Jessica Chastain were magic. They should do a movie just of these two talking. No script required.

[Nick Davis]

Genius, you two. Total genius.

[NATHANIEL R]

Troy -- i know right? that's maybe my favorite part though it has a lot of competition.

[eurocheese]

<3

[Tyler]

Love it!

[The Real Gary Payton]

I'm gonna hide a bunch of nuns and cry in front of them for five minutes. Then win all of the awards. Because I deserve it.

[3rtful]

My vision for Fences is a repeat of history. Where Denzel wins another Oscar and Viola is only the second nonwhite actress to win Best Actress. I think Ava Duvernay should adapt it instead of Denzel in the director's chair.

For those who care I was hospitalized recently.

[NATHANIEL R]

3rtful -- i think two is enough Oscars for Denzel :) anyway, AVA is a great idea.

sorry to hear about the hospital. Hope everything is okay now.

[Peggy Sue]

I love her, she's magnificent, but I don't like a single thing she has done since "The Help" and I never was the biggest fan of that one either!

3rtful -- Get well!

[3rtful]

Washington will join the three timers club for multiple reasons I do not have the strength to get into.

Thank you Peggy and Nathaniel for the well wishes.

[Tony T]

I love Viola Davis but respectfully disagree that she should have won the Oscar for Doubt. Maybe for The Help. I also would love it if she started taking some real risks. She's a fantastic actress capable of real greatness and she shines in some pretty standard roles. I would love it if she floored us with something really out of the box. I'm thinking Nicole Kidman in the Paperboy kind of crazy.

[Troy H.]

Tony T, I wonder if her perceived lack of risk taking has to do with the types of roles and projects she's offered. I never overlook the fact that, no matter how renowned, Hollywood still doesn't know what to do with black actresses. As much as I would love to see her diversify her CV myself, I know that a performer only can take the opportunities that come.

I, like 3rtful (get well soon), think Washington is one of the few actors who has a legitimate shot at a three-peat, but his movies often are forgettable, and he seems too content to coast on goodwill from his late 1980s-late 1990s heyday. It's extremely frustrating when I think about it, particularly considering how much of a game changer a Fences adaptation could be for all suggested parties if it were a critical and commercial success (a historic 3rd nod for Viola, a historic director nod for Duvernay, a historic 7th nod for him).

[Peggy Sue]

Troy H. -- I'm with you. She sounds like someone really smart, so I guess the problem is the material. They don't know what to do with her, the same way they don't know what to do with the marvelous Lupita.

[Philip H.]

"I also would love it if she started taking some real risks" -- as others have pointed out I'm sure this has very little to do with her choices, and everything to do with what's available to her.

It still breaks my heart that she lost the Oscar for The Help because not only was she much more deserving than Meryl, I could tell she legitimately thought she was going to win it.

Love this woman.