Viola Davis has never held back when it comes to addressing the lack of equality and diversity.
During her latest interview with InStyle magazine, the Academy award-winning actress delved further into the issue — making valid comparisons between herself and her white counterparts.
“Here’s my big thing, and people in Hollywood know this: I have great agents; I love them. I love my manager. I love my publicist. But I say this to them all the time, I say, ‘I want and I expect to get the same filet mignon that white actresses get. Cooked at the exact temperature,'” she told the publication for its December 2020 issue.
“‘You cannot throw me a bone with a really nice little piece of meat still on it and expect that’s good enough for me. I love my collard greens and all of that, and I know we were given the leftovers. I know how to cook that, but I want a filet mignon,'” she said.
Davis is the first African-American actress to achieve the “Triple Crown of Acting,” winning an Academy Award, an Emmy Award (Primetime), and two Tony Awards.
Despite her long list of credentials, Davis is still fighting to
“It’s only until you reach a certain point, and maybe you have a certain level of expectation, that you realize you are not like everyone else,” Davis said. “In Hollywood, actresses don’t share their salary with each other while they’re sitting around drinking a glass of wine. A huge part of that, I’ll say, is ego. Ego because you don’t want people to know that you make less than what they think you make. Another part of it is etiquette.”
There is allyship in the industry, but Davis says Black actresses have a long way to go before they are made whole.
“There should be solidarity with everyone. Solidarity with Caucasian women and women of color. [Actress] Michelle Williams, of course, put it beautifully. The differences in pay and the lack of access to opportunities are huge,” Davis explained. “I fully expect changes. I’m trying to lift my hopes up. Even if it takes a little bit of vodka. If we don’t move forward together, then we don’t move forward.”
