Viola Davis to Break Records if She Crashes the Best Supporting Actress Party
Tuesday, October 25, 2016 at 12:30PM Over the weekend Viola Davis's camp confirmed they were officially aiming for Best Supporting Actress for her work in Fences. This disappoints us since she won the Lead Tony on Broadway for the role and now it seems like we're going to remain ages and ages away from another WOC winning Best Actress. It's been a long time since Halle Berry. Viola will of course become the most nominated black actress at the Oscars ever if she's nominated for Fences (which will be her 3rd nomination) making her the immediate frontrunner.
Can Viola & Denzel repeat their Tony winning dominance at the Oscars for Fences?
Updated Best Actress Chart
Updated Best Supporting Actress Chart
But let's discuss a less cited but even more impressive (though frustrating) record Viola may break. If Viola is nominated for Fences she becomes not just the most nominated black actress but the most nominated black woman of all time in any category. Viola is currently tied with five other women with two nominations each: most famously Oprah Winfrey (Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress... she also has the non-competitive Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award), Whoopi Goldberg (both for acting), and Ruth E Carter (both times for costume design) who rose up in the 1980s and 1990s. Since the turn of the century three more black women have joined them: Viola, plus Sharen Davis (both times for Costume Design) and Siedah Garrett (both times for Original Song). The only way Viola doesn't keep this record for her own is if Sharen Davis joins her in a tie for most nominated in January. Sharen designed the costumes for Fences and could also be in the mix this year for a third time. Of those six women, only Whoopi has won a competitive Oscar.
Costume Designer Sharen Davis (Fences) could break the record WITH Viola!
Updated: Removed commentary about a possible posthumous nomination for Wilson to do more research on the topic.
Reader Comments (62)
Hope this doesn't turn out to be blatant Category Fraud. Should it be, there probably won't be any Vikander/Danish Girl or Rooney Mara/Carol outcry. It'll be accepted with the 'Viola needs to win excuse...'
Hayden & NewMoonSon -- i typed up a huge reply which the blog ate for some reason (sigh). but i have removed the commentary. and clearly need to do more research.
However I would like to note on Hayden's notion that it would be a weird thing to be mad about even if my facts were correct, I must respectfully 100000000% disagree. Rules are rules. I don't believe in changing them for sentiment or for any other reason. The Adapted Screenplay prize has never gone to the original author but to the adapter. If you change it now shouldn't we retroactively give out 88 years of Oscars to novelists and playwrights and the like -- I mean Edward Albee didn't get nominated for the Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf's screenplay even though its his genius without which the movie woudln't exist.. Whenever rules are ignored you have messes and it makes 89 past years of Oscars look irrelevant because if the rules aren't rules, why were thousands of other films / people expected to obey them?
This isn't very surprising news, since the film's marketing (trailer and poster) positioned her as a supporting actress to Denzel. Compare and contrast to the trailers and posters for La La Land and Loving, where the two leads are positioned equally.
To be honest, I wonder about the film's quality. Denzel isn't a great director, and it is challenging to direct oneself and adapt a play. But I'm not sure tepid reviews would even affect Viola's chances at this point.
I agree with you that rules are rules but why does your unfounded suspicion (which the record clearly debunks) have anything to do with whether or not Wilson wrote the screenplay? Even to continue putting "screenwriter" in quotes is insulting. Fences the Movie was a movie long before it became a movie—I expect that to be part of the story Denzel and company tell on the trail. What about that narrative bothers you so much that you need to put "screenwriter" in quotations? And what closure do you expect to obtain to settle the matter. Does the Wilson estate need to release the long-form version of his screenplay to put this conspiracy to rest?
(Also, as if a Denzel-directed movie of a Tony-winning play with Viola Davis needs August Wilson's screenwriting credit to boost its prestige. Or a dead guy needs the vanity credit.)
I don't see any basis (literally any basis at all) for you to be so cynical and skeptical about crediting Wilson with the adaptation. Kushner has written and taken credit for PLENTY of works that bear his own name so I trust him and Denzel (who started this project as a labor of love and respect) to truthfully award credit to Wilson where it's due.
@Pete: What makes it worse is that you can imagine a scenario where Edgerton makes it in because Leading Actor is a bit more nebulous (after Affleck and Washington) whereas Leading Actress is seriously stacked. Of course, they could nominate Braga or the duo from The Handmaiden
@Mike: I don't blame her for American Beauty. Alan Ball's script was really unkind to Carolyn Burnham. I don't think there's an actress alive that would've made it work (though now I'd love to see a Cate Blanchett or Julianne Moore tackle it).
Hayden -- i've lost your thread of outrage now. can't even follow it. Not sure where you see "screenwriter" in quotes -- was it a different article than this one?. or why you're still angry
Arkaan & Mike -- i'll never understand people thinking Annette Bening is too cartoonish in American Beauty. It IS a cartoon. It's a highly stylized movie and her part is impossible (because the screenplay clearly hates her) and yet she still makes it work and is really funny.
-Nathaniel
I'm not on board for Hayden's level of outrage, but you 100000000% had "screenwriter" in your screenplay predictions which you have since edited out.
It's still in the cached version of the page: here
Streep was able to get nominations for Devil Wears Prada and Julia & Julia which were both summer released films. I fully expect that the impressive performance she displayed in this summer's FFJenkins will also carry over...(unless the new batch of 600 'diverse' members vote strictly on skin color and not acting achievements...)
Screw you Tom.
Really Tom? Are you saying then that all of Streep's 19 nominations were 100% on merit? Because there are plenty who would argue to differ on that.
No one is saying that a more diverse academy is going to suddenly use Oscar nominations for some kind of reparations, as you are close to suggesting.
But you're acting as if every Oscar nomination and win up to this point had zero motive behind it other than rewarding the actual 'best' of the year.
Streep is in now!!!
Thx, Viola!
Silly not to place Streep in top 5. Get it together.
Not mad at Viola at all for dropping to supporting. It's an Oscar regardless, and she's overdue. She should have won for "The Help" anyways, and Rose is supporting in play.
Denzel is winning lead actor. Calling it already. He'll pull in Viola just like he did with Halle.
Next black BA winner? Keep waiting for it.
It's not the end of the world, folks.
Why is everyone assuming another WOC won't win Best Actress next year? Have you forgotten Ruth Negga is getting rave reviews for Loving?
And Viola winning supporting actress means Sonia Braga and Isabelle Huppert have a good chance joining Ruth, Emma Stone and Natalie Portman in the final 5.