The craft of acting is not effortless. It requires hours of hard work, commitment, and dedication. The end result of performance, however, should always look effortless, and cinematic god Viola Davis has always been able to do this.
When you watch a performance, there's a difference between watching an actor and seeing an actor. When you watch, Doubt, The Help, Widows, Prisoners, Fences and How To Get Away With Murder, you're watching Viola Davis. When you watch Viola Davis, you don't watch her, you see her. You see Mrs. Miller, Aibileen Clark, Veronica Rawlings, Nancy Birch, Rose Maxson, Annalise Keating and all the other remarkably real characters she so passionate brought to life.
Actors and actresses are immortal because when they read a script and see a character, they see someone who was once alive. How else could writers know how to invent them? What actors and actresses then do is resurrect these characters. They put air into their lungs and bring them back to life. Throughout production, they take care of them by portraying them.
When filming is done and the movie is released, the characters are all grown up and can take care of themselves.
Someone who understands this thought process is who an actor “is”. Who an artist is. Who a masterclass is. Viola Davis is all of the above. With her lack of hesitation to always touch the scars and wounds the truth comes with, she brings forward exposure to life and art all at once. We see her. We see her honesty, love, and sense of self. The sun of the cinema rises and sets for her. It took a long time for her to get here. A decade is a very short period of time and so much can happen during it.
In just one decade, Viola Davis has become inarguably one of the best. She's at the top of her game, the faster runner in her tracks and she's not slowing down anytime soon. Congratulations, Viola for all of your success. Hail, Viola!!! Hail!!!
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