Viola 'on the move'
Thursday, August 27, 2015 at 1:04PM How did I miss this incredible news in the New York Times?!? Viola Davis, on the Emmy campaign trail for her Shondaland series How to Get Away With Murder, talked about all her future projects. It's good news times three.
Q. In addition to “Suicide Squad,” what else are you working on?
A. They are making “Fences,” August Wilson’s play, into a feature that Denzel Washington is directing and I’m going to be in. My husband and I started a production company, and we are doing Harriet Tubman’s story for HBO that Kirk Ellis is writing. And Tony Kushner is writing a project that we got greenlit at Fox Searchlight about the great congresswoman out of Texas, Barbara Jordan. I’m always moving.
She also explains the reasoning behind her recent populist / less prestigious genre choices...
Q. So starting your company let you be in control?
A. Yes, but it’s a lot of work to be the boss. You’ve got to have two trains going at the same time. You have to stay relevant, hence “How to Get Away With Murder,” hence “Suicide Squad. “You have to stay relevant, because if you are not, no one will take a chance with you on even a $2 million budget. But then at the same time you have to take risks in terms of material that moves you.
Good luck to her as ever. We've been in her corner since 2002 (the "who is that" triple whammy of Far From Heaven, Antwone Fisher, Solaris) and we don't plan to go anywhere!
I don't want to say that we willed movement onto the Fences adaptation but IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME. And though her Barbara Jordan project has been talked up for three or four years now, there's been no real movement on it until now. Thank you Fox Searchlight! Now let's get all of this fast-tracked right now since Viola Davis just turned 50 and you know how Hollywood likes to turn on women when they do. There's no time to waste!
Pointless But Fun What If Trivia: If Viola wins the Emmy for HTGAWM next month and the Oscar for Fences when that movie is released (astoundingly big "ifs" but go with it) than she'll just be a Grammy short of an EGOT since she already has two Tony Awards (for lead and featured). It's worth noting that if she wins all four competitively she'll be the very first African-American to accomplish it and only the second woman of color after Puerto Rico's Rita Moreno. Now, technically, three black icons (Whoopi Goldberg, Harry Belafonte, and James Earl Jones) have all four but those statistics come with the heavy asterisks that also plague Liza & Babs in that at least one of the prizes was given non-competitively or in a "lesser" form. I mean, sorry Whoopi, but you shouldn't count daytime Emmies anymore than you'd count regional Emmys (they give those things out like candy!) towards the showbiz quadruple. (Yours truly personally prefers the Triple Crown -- easier to follow and the Grammys aren't actor-focused like the other three so there's less beautiful symmetry! -- but Tina Fey's 30 Rock destroyed popular culture's interest in that statistic by popularizing the notion of the EGOT.)
EGOT, Fences, Triple Crown, Viola Davis, biopics, politics
Reader Comments (23)
The best news is she has two more chances at Oscar and all in Best Actress!
I really, really want that Barbara Jordan biopic to happen. I hope they find a great director for it.
Nat: The former is a much bigger if than the latter. (Fences is a respected Theatre adaptation. How to Get Away with Murder getting that Emmy nom has to be them pranking us. Agent Carter? Masters of Sex? The Americans?)
Based on the Emmy's, they're lucky to be nominated:
Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black (did anyone think this would have EVER happened?)
Robin Wright, House of Cards (it was sketchy that she got two nominations, let alone three)
Viola Davis, How to Get Away with Murder (Not exceptionally popular and certainly not particularly respected. (Seriously, Even a Scandal repeat probably would have made a little more sense.)
Good for her, but she probably won't win:
Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men
Outside Shot for the Win:
Claire Danes, Homeland
Probable Winner:
Taraji P. Henson, Empire
Viola for Oscar, then President. It's never too early.
I watched HTGAWM just and only for Viola ( who did a great job in a stupid series and a stupid role ). I propose a new Emmy category : best actress in a stupid series . She should win that hands down.
If she looses the Emmy for HTGAWM she will for sure win for the Harriett Tubman HBO biopic. But when Fences finally comes to the screen that Oscar is hers. Someone is going to have to give a Sophie/Scarlett performance to top that.
Volvagia what they hell are you talking about? She won't win? This is not the Oscars. Where a nonwhite actress in a leading role is simply window dressing.
Fences is a project I am personally looking forward to.
3rtful: I said that TARAJI is the most probable winner, right? Also: It's actually kind of bold of me to peg Taraji and not Claire Danes. Why? EVERY actress who has actually WON the Emmy for Lead Actress in a Drama up to this point (in two thousand bleeping fifteen) is white (yes, I checked it meticulously), so maybe recheck what your definition of "window dressing" is. Even a "token" win like Halle Berry in Monster's Ball is better than THAT track record.
Tracy: Is that a Daytime Emmy?
Whoopi: Girl's gotta eat!
[Adapting a line from the musical Once on This Island] "And the gods heard our prayer."
Yes to everything I just read. Now if she and Angela Bassett can do a remake of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? the way I've been suggesting for the past two years, my life would be most complete.
I want FENCES and Barbara Jordan now, Viola! Hope we don''t have to wait long.
I am so mad that Whoopi never won a primetime Emmy for any of her hosting gigs. She's still my modern host at the Oscars.
Volvagia & 3rtful -- but again... as with complaints about the motion picture Academy the Emmy voters can only vote on what Hollywood makes for them to vote on. FACT: Kerry Washington was the first female black actress lead of a drama series since 1974 (!!!) until Viola & Taraji showed up... so no winners is not weird at all as there was virtually no one that could have even been nominated. (I personally don't think Kerry ever deserved the win - certainly not over Claire Danes' Homeland work).
I think Viola or Taraji is going to win, one is a hugely respected actress with a hit show and the other is an entertaining showbiz trouper who is the MVP of a mammoth hit. I really think we'll see one of them win.
Not true Nate Dog.
Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series - 1995
Nominee
Cicely Tyson, as Carrie Grace
Sweet Justice
NBC
- See more at: http://www.emmys.com/bios/cicely-tyson#sthash.yITvDW9g.dpuf
/3rtful -- strange. there were so many profiles of Kerry Washington stating that she was the first since the 1970s. (and wikipedia too) ;)
YESSS FOX SEARCHLIGHT YESSSS DENZEL VIOLA IS RISING VIOLA SHALL RULE US ALL
First of all, YES to Fences. I love that play so much and want to see Viola win her Oscar finally.
Secondly, as much as I want Taraji to win the Emmy (and think she deserves it most), I think Viola has a much better chance of winning because her and her character are more "respectable." Even if her character can be an anti-hero (which I wouldn't know because I don't watch that awful show), she still has that stuffy procedural law drama type vibe. Whereas Taraji's Cookie is wildly entertaining and full of heart--equal parts dramatic and comedic--but, isn't exactly the type of character they ever vote for in that category. So we'll see.
From a quick perusal of imdb/wiki, Sweet Justice's true lead is probably Melissa Gilbert. And of course, as a one season show, writers simply don't remember...
I'm thrilled. Great for her to make it happen for herself by starting her own production company. I wish her great success.
Looking forward to Fences. I suppose it was greenlit because of Denzel's star power which FINALLY he used for a worthwhile cause and interesting project. Not sure about him directing but happy that it will get made with Viola as the lead.
"FACT: Kerry Washington was the first female black actress lead of a drama series since 1974 (!!!) until Viola & Taraji showed up"
Are you referring to Cicely Tyson in Jane Pittman? It was a drama special not a series.
Also, you didn't have to go back to 1974: Debbie Allen (Fame, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985), Alfre Woodard (St. Elsewhere, 1986), and Regina Taylor (I'll Fly Away, 1992, 1993).
NewMoonSon, Kin, /3rtful -- I'm guessing, now that i've had time to think it over that the articles all meant "solo lead" situations since the others definitely weren't with Melissa Gilbert headlining Sweet Justice, and Fame being a true ensemble, and so on.
until SCANDAL. But still, it's needlessly confusing and I regret making the same error that tons of outlets have made in Kerry Washington profiles over the years.
Jija -- yeah. I hate when great source material goes to weaker directors (see also: August Osage County). Maybe Denzel will surprise us but his other directorial offerings dont suggest that he's particularly gifted behind the camera.
YHASSS, SLAY Viola! Excited for the Barbara Jordan picture. The late congresswoman Shirley Chisholm would also make a great biopic.