Viola Davis walked away with the award for the best female actor in a motion picture honor for the Netflix movie “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” on Sunday night.
Davis is now one of only two Black women to win the SAG award for best actress in a film.
Davis kissed her husband, Julius Tennon, before accepting the award. She then went on to thank the writer, August Wilson, for “leaving a legacy to actors of color that we can relish for the rest of our lives” and the “beautiful Chadwick Boseman.”
“Thank you, August for leaving a legacy to actors of color that we can relish for the rest of our life,” Davis said, while also thanking her fellow nominees Carey Mulligan, Amy Adams, Vanessa Kirby and Frances McDormand. “I couldn’t have been in better company, thank you so much.”
Davis previously won the award in 2012 for “The Help.” The first time ever a Black actor has won the category twice. The film centered on a group of Black service workers who published their stories about their white employers in 1960s Mississippi during the civil rights movement.
“The stain of racism and sexism is not just for people of color or women. It’s all of our burden…. I don’t care how ordinary you feel, all of us can inspire change, every single one of us,” she said at the time. She added, “I am so proud to be an actor… I have a special, special note to the kids in Central Falls, Rhode Island, in Segue Institute of Learning in Central Falls, Rhode Island: to dream big and dream fierce.”
