Cousins!
Congratulations are in order for the endlessly talented actress Viola Davis as she accepted the Icon Award at the 2021 African American Film Critics Association Awards!
Though Viola has held a prosperous career in film and television receiving an Oscar award, Emmy and two Tony awards she’s revealed that her career has been anything but easy and difficult for her to take in the praise that she receives.
“What makes it an easy pill to swallow is when I think about people like August Wilson, and I think about directors like George C. Wolfe and Denzel Washington,” says Viola on Wednesday night.
Honored to receive the Icon Award last night! Thank you @theaafca!! 🙏🏿💛 pic.twitter.com/VUaSDKfGA1
— Viola Davis (@violadavis) April 8, 2021
“And the reason why I say that is my acceptance of any of this praise is equal to my absolute passion to leave a legacy. A legacy for brown-skinned girls just like me who were told that they were invisible.”
She continues by thanking the late Chadwick Boaeman including the cast and crew of the Netflix original film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
“It’s been the ride of my life to have this career. I have been blessed and fortunate in every single way to be able to literally give you all the human beings, the black and brown human beings that I’ve embodied and to give them to you and to help you to feel less alone through their stories. I will continue to leave a legacy of hope, of life, of humor, of pathos, of humanity for as long as God will have me here,” continues Viola.
“I just want to say this one thing, because of this past year and everything that we have been through, what the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls the butterfly. We have within us, all the tools that are necessary to elevate our lives in the most unbelievable profound ways. I have found it through my acting, but my God, we can find it through every area in our life.”
Viola is also nominated for best actress at this year’s Oscar awards.