Viola's voice

Poised to star as both Michelle Obama and blues legend Ma Rainey, Viola Davis says the key to a character is discovering what they’re fighting for and what holds them back. She talks about her extraordinary journey out of poverty and into the deeply troubling Hollywood system.

- SONIA SARAIYA

During the fraught, emotional days after the killing of George Floyd, Viola Davis wanted, more than anything, to be out on the streets of Los Angeles, shouting, protesting, holding a sign. She wanted to join the thousands of others who flooded cities across the nation and around the world to call for justice for Floyd and all the other Black men and women unjustly killed by the police.

“She called me and said she was going,” Viola’s close friend and neighbour, the actor Octavia Spencer, tells me by email. “I immediately talked her out of that.” Octavia and Viola were both concerned about putting themselves or their loved ones with health conditions at risk – and were acutely aware that due to systemic healthcare inequality, Covid-19 has a much higher mortality rate for Black Americans. “Both of us cried,” Octavia continues. “This was our civil rights movement, and we were sidelined because of health issues. We felt isolated from the movement.”

Then they had an idea: what about a neighbourhood demonstration with friends and family members who needed to be mindful of their health? They banded together with Viola’s husband of 17 years, the actor and producer Julius Tennon; fellow actor Yvette Nicole Brown; and a handful of others – and camped out on Laurel Canyon Boulevard in Studio City. They wore masks, which also rendered them unrecognisable, but even so, someone across the street brought them a pizza in a show of solidarity. Viola’s sign read, simply, ‘AHMAUD ARBERY’.