Viola Davis wants you to know how she really feels about the film industry.
The How to Get Away with Murder star said in an interview with Elle that she’s upset by the way women are portrayed on TV.
“We’ve been fed a whole slew of lies about women,” she said. “[By TV standards,] if you are anywhere above a size 2, you’re not having sex. You don’t have sexual thoughts. You may not even have a vagina. And if you’re of a certain age, you’re off the table.”
It’s important to point out that this is not the first time Viola Davis called out Hollywood for the way women are represented in film and TV. The actress, who was the first black actress to win an Emmy for Best Actress in a TV Drama, said she had “mixed emotions” about her win.
“I just hope this is now a part of the status quo that women of color are included in the narratives that continue to write lead roles for us, to rethink how we see a leading lady and we don’t have to have this discussion anymore,” she said in her Emmy acceptance speech.
“Let me tell you something: The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there,” she added, thanking creator Peter Nowalk and executive producer Shonda Rhimes for being “people who have redefined what it means to be beautiful, to be sexy, to be a leading woman, to be black.”
Viola Davis’ next project is a biopic about the legendary abolitionist and activist Harriet Tubman for HBO.
