Dear Gossips,
Viola Davis won the Best Supporting Actress Screen Actors Guild Award last year for her work in Fences and she went on to win the same award at the Oscars. Viola was not at the SAGs last night but she spoke in LA on Saturday at the Women’s March and this is part of what she said:
“Listen, I am always introduced as an award-winning actor. But my testimony is one of poverty. My testimony is one of being sexually assaulted and very much seeing a childhood that was robbed from me.”
That was near the end of her speech. At the beginning, she talks about Jim Crow and about the status quo. And then she talks about cost. That it used to cost the status quo nothing to preserve the status quo. And that cost has always been born by those who seek change. Viola is a member of an industry that has often prioritised cost over change, an industry that has been heavily scrutinised recently for those who’ve been victimised by its history of cost protection. Is it starting to cost Hollywood? Is Hollywood willing to assume the cost? Something to think about as Hollywood continues to celebrate itself over the next few weeks of this award season. What is the cost? And what does it look like?
Click here for the full video of Viola’s powerful speech.
Full SAG coverage will be posted here on the main page through the day and in the LifeStyle section. Thanks for following along and refresh often!
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
