Viola Davis says ‘stop taming us’ at Hollywood event
LOS ANGELES— Actressproducer Viola Davis gave a rousing speech about leadership and authenticity to a well-heeled crowd of Hollywood power players on Wednesday morning at The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment breakfast.
Davis, who was being honored with the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award, said she doesn’t always come to mind when she thinks of the idea of leadership—Martin Luther King Jr. does—but that she’s trying through her production company to embrace women of color as they really are.
“There’s no limit to how we see narratives with people of color,” Davis said to a rapt crowd that included Mandy Moore, Lupita Nyong’o, Awkwafina, Rita Wilson, “Roma” breakout Yalitza Aparicio and Kesha. “There is only so much I am going to kowtow to this business.”
She said she and her husband, Julius Tennon, started JuVee Productions because she was tired of celebrating movies that didn’t have “me in it.”
“I don’t mean me Viola,” Davis said. “I mean me as a black woman.”
Message
She urged those in power in Hollywood to show more authentic black female characters.
“My main message is, ‘Stop taming us,’” she said. “Everything that we are inside is what makes art in this world rich. There is something to be said about being wild. Steve McQueen is wild. Or Barry Jenkins and Ryan Coogler—these people who just dare and say you cannot silence me.”
Even when there are black characters, she said, they’re reduced to being maternal, to being the savior, to being denied sexuality, to being there to “make white characters feel better.”
“What is in my heart is I cannot lead with bullsh*t,” she said. “I cannot lead with lying.”
Davis’ company recently closed a first-look production deal with Amazon Studios, where they will produce a film about pioneering politician Shirley Chisholm. The actress will star as the New York congresswoman.