Viola Davis was joined by Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, and director Tate Taylor to promote The Help in Madrid today. Right now she’s an early lock for one of the five spots in the Best Actress category for the Oscar. NOT Supporting. Best. And word is she campaigned for that. Supposedly she insisted on her role being considered in the lead category even though some say she’d have a better shot at it if nominated in Supporting. For Viola though, it wasn’t about that. No doubt.
If the buzz holds through the season, Viola will likely be on the ballot with Meryl Streep and Glenn Close. And I wouldn’t write her off as a third place finish. Did you see the trailer for Streep’s The Iron Lady? That seemed super caricature-y to me. Click here if you haven’t. It’s a short clip. Maybe it’s just a bad clip. Maybe the rest won’t make me so uncomfortable.
As for Viola, she also has a part in the upcoming Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. I posted the trailer last week. You might miss her if you don’t pay very, very close attention though. That’s another reason why that trailer sucks.