award shows, celebrity interviews, Fences, Golden Globe Awards, Golden Globe interviews, Golden Globes, movies, Viola Davis
January 9, 2017
by Carla Hay
The 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards took place on January 8, 2017, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California.
VIOLA DAVIS
Golden Globe win:
Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
(“Fences”)
Here is what this Golden Globe winner said backstage in the Golden Globe Awards press room.
BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
What’s the first thing you’re going to do when you get home tonight?
I’m not going to get in my Jacuzzi because it’s going to be too late. I’m probably take a shower and maybe have another glass of Prosecco with my husband.
Where are you going to put your Golden Globe?
My husband always takes care of the trophies because after tonight, I so appreciate this, but I’ve got put the trophy away get back to work. he puts in the office on a shelf.
Can you tell us something about your communication and your team work with your husband Julius that makes you better?
I don’t know. It’s like that’s a God question. Lord knows, I don’t know what I did to deserve him walking into my life 18 years ago. I just know that it worked. I just know that it’s a great friendship. I know that when I’m down, he’s up. And when he’s down, I’m up, so we could throw each other a rope.
And now, people kind of merge our names together. I was JuliusViola. But I think probably respect—respect on the greatest level and wanting the best for him as well as him one and the best for me. I think that’s probably the truest foundation of love.
You won a Tony Award for the same role in “Fences.” Can you talk about moving the story along with your “Fences” co-star/director Denzel Washington from the stage to in front of the camera?
It felt very natural, already kind of feels like an intimate story, but not intimate in a way that’s small. I think that you know with Shakespeare or Chekov or any great writer who writes tragedies we know that they write about big emotions, about people within the confines of a family or community fighting for their lives. And it was such a joy and pleasure to have that challenge and to have August Wilson’s words and have those characters.
And like I said on the stage, very seldom does the average person get their due—especially with people of color. It’s always biopics. It’s always which is fantastic. It’s always someone who did something tremendous in life that changed the scope of our country.
But I also like the stories of the smaller people. I think that it encapsulates time. I think that it’s universal and inclusive, and that’s what August did. And all of that, it just felt like a very natural fluid movement to bring it to the screen.
In Trump’s America, how can we really be sure of the progress we’ve made all these years, in terms of racial tension, in terms of everybody still having a shot at the American Dream, and make sure we’re continuing in the right direction?
Believe it or not, I will remove Trump from the equation because I feel that it’s bigger than him. I believe that is it is our responsibility to uphold what it is to be an American. And what America is about in the true meaning of what it means to pursue the American Dream.
I think that America in and of itself has been an affirmation, but I think that we’ve fallen short a lot because there is no way that we can have anyone in office that is not an extension of our own belief system. So then what does that say about us? And I think that if you answer that question, I think that that says it all and I know that’s very ambiguous, but thank you.