New leading lady: Viola Davis says past roles were 'mammy-ish'

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For over 30 years, Actress Viola Davis has spent time between the stage and silver screen.

Later this month, she stars in ABC’s new drama, How to Get Away With Murder.

In the show, Davis plays Annalise Keating, a seductive and alluring defense attorney and law professor who uses real-life cases as lessons in her classroom. The legal series allows Davis to play a role she has never done before and is a break from all the other portrayals she has done on stage and on film.

She recently admitted during an interview with the New York Times that most of her previous roles were all “mammy-ish” and “downtrodden” – usually doctors and lawyers with names yet no lives where she gets three or four scenes and no chance to really show what she can do.

“You’re going to get your little bitty paycheck,” Davis said. “Then you’re going to be hungry for your next role, which is going to be absolutely the same. That’s the truth.”

Davis said she has had her eye on her latest starring role for some time now, adding that it is time for audience to see “us, people of color” for what we really are — complicated.

How to Get Away With Murder will premiere on ABC on September 25 at 10 PM EST.

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