Viola Davis On Challenges As A Dark-Skinned Woman

Viola Davis has always been outspoken about issues of diversity in Hollywood. While the Oscar winner may have more access than she did 10 years ago, that doesn’t mean she is going to stop fighting for the actors and creatives on the rise.

Davis, who joined Black Lives Matter protests in June, sat down with Vanity Fair to discuss her epic career and her personal protests for their July/August issue. 

“I feel like my entire life has been a protest. My production company is my protest. Me not wearing a wig at the Oscars in 2012 was my protest,” she said. “It is a part of my voice, just like introducing myself to you and saying, ‘Hello, my name is Viola Davis.’”

She also opened up about Black actresses on the rise, “There’s not enough opportunities out there to bring that unknown, faceless Black actress to the ranks of the known.”

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Davis continued, “Fabulous white actresses (who have had) a wonderful role for each stage of their lives, that brought them to the stage they are now. We can’t say that for many actors of color.”

The 54-year-old is rocking the cover of Vanity Fair and for the first-time ever, the cover is shot by a Black photographer named Dario Calmese.

Davis explained, “They’ve had a problem in the past with putting Black women on the covers. But that’s a lot of magazines, that’s a lot of beauty campaigns. There’s a real absence of dark-skinned Black women. When you couple that with what’s going on in our culture, and how they treat Black women, you have a double whammy. You are putting us in a complete cloak of invisibility.”

Viola is refusing to be  invisible, especially with her next project. Back in February, Deadline reported she will serve as executive producer on the one-hour Showtime drama First Ladies, where she will also star as a former first lady Michelle Obama.

Read the powerful Vanity Fair interview here.