Viola Davis is demanding more from Hollywood.
Equal pay is a major controversy that is still a topic at large, even though it’s 2018. Men are still getting paid more than women and sadly it’s affecting black women and white women as black actresses such as Viola Davis says she’s getting far fewer opportunities compared to her white female industry mates.
“I have a career that’s probably comparable to Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Sigourney Weaver. They all came out of Yale, they came out of Juilliard, they came out of NYU,” the Fences actress said while talking with journalist Tina Brown at the Women in the World Salon event last night. “They had the same path as me, and yet I am nowhere near them. Not as far as money, not as far as job opportunities, nowhere close to it.”
In reference to people calling her the “Black Meryl Streep,” Viola says, “if there’s no one like me, you think I’m that, you pay me what I’m worth,” adding: “As an artist, I want to build the most complicated human being but what I get is the third girl from the left.”
Viola was the first black woman to win an Oscar, Emmy, and Tony award for acting last year and needless to say, she’s tired of having t prove herself. “It’s gotten to the point [where] I’m no longer doing that,” she added. “I’m not hustling for my worth. I’m worthy. When I came out of my mom’s womb, I came in worthy.”
“You’ll have a Shailene Woodley, who’s fabulous,” she explained. “And, she may have had 37 magazine covers in one year. 37! And then you’ll have someone — a young actress of color who’s on her same level of talent and everything. And she may get four. And there is sense in our culture that you have to be happy with that.”
What do you guys think?
