Viola Davis reflects on creating authenticity in her ‘How to Get Away With Murder’ role
Viola Davis explains why her “How to Get Away With Murder” character, Annalise Keating, holds a special place in her heart.
Viola Davis has starred in a number of significant roles, but she recently revealed which one stands out the most for her. During an interview at the Red Sea Film Festival in Saudi Arabia, Davis explained how monumental her role as Annalise Keating on “How to Get Away With Murder” felt for her career.
“The reason why I think I’m proud of it is because I felt it was brave of me,” she said about taking on the role of Keating, per Variety. “I haven’t always been brave in my life, but that was one moment that I was brave. I had a decision to make: I could just join the crop of women who work on TV who, to be honest, have a certain look in the lead roles.”
As the EGOT award-winning actress noted, fictional characters are typically a “Mr. Potato Head of an audience’s desires,” who are expected to “walk like supermodels” and “look beautiful in costumes.” So, when Davis was cast as the lead character in the Shondaland series, she was expected to encapsulate the character’s essence while appeasing the mainstream audience’s standards of being a sexy, mysterious protagonist.
“There’s so many people who said, ‘Oh, she’s miscast. Annalise Keating is described as mysterious and sexual and all that, and that can’t be Viola,’” she recalled. “And so, here’s what I had to do: I had to at least try to lose weight and try to be that woman who could be on television, which is not going to happen. I was about 50 years old at the time. It’s not like I was going to do Botox and start eating string beans.”
However, as the actress tried to adhere to societal beauty standards, she recalled famed acting teacher Sanford Meisner’s theology on the importance of asking the question, “Why?” as an actor.
“[Meisner] said, one of the most important questions an actor can ask is: ‘Why?’ And when you ask ‘Why?’ it brings you on a journey that could be transformative,” said Davis, explaining how she applied this theory when preparing to portray Annalise Keating.
“So, then I had to ask some questions: ‘Why do I have to be that woman? Why does she have to walk great in heels? Why can’t I be the size I am? And why can’t all those things be true and I [can] be on network TV? Why can’t I take my wig off? Why can’t I wear my natural hair?’” she continued. “And every time I asked, ‘Why?’ I got to the truth of who Annalise was, and so then I had something to work with, which is trying the best I could with network TV writing to make her some semblance of a human being. And so, that was the first thing with Annalise Keating.”
This revelation motivated Davis to advocate for bringing that humanity to people’s televisions. She recalls being on a call with ‘How to Get Away With Murder’ showrunner-creator Peter Nowalk, producers Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers, and the head of the studio [ABC Entertainment Group] Paul Lee, and saying, “Well, I’m not going to do this show unless she could take off her wig. And the reason is, if I take off the wig, and if I take off the makeup, they’re going to have to deal with that woman who’s been revealed. They’re going to have to deal with her crinkly, curly hair. They’re going to have to deal with the woman behind the mask. And that is a character that I could play.”
Her advocacy extended beyond Annalise Keating’s physical appearance. The actress also explained how her quest to humanize the “How to Get Away with Murder” character influenced the show’s sex scenes.
“Here’s the thing: With sexuality and human beings, it’s not pornography. Pornography is selling the sex, right? It’s to turn people on. It’s serving a purpose. Being sexual is an extension of who you are as a human being. It’s based [on] memory, experience, trauma, everything. You don’t just do it,” she said. “And then, when you are having sex, in my imagination, in my fantasy, every sex scene should be cringy. I mean, who has a camera in their bedroom where it’s perfectly shot, and everyone has been in the gym for the last five months, [and] no one puts down a towel?”
She continued: “I decided to deal with the woman who would be bisexual, have affairs, be married to a man who could be a murderer — and so that’s when her sexual past and her sexual abuse came up. That’s when Miss Cicely Tyson [who played Ophelia Harkness, Annalise’s mother] came into the picture. And then, I felt like I was building a world that was honest; it was a world that was fantastical, but there were some threads of the truth in there that made people lean in, and that is what I’m most proud of.”
Each of these decisions contributed to the gritty, captivating essence of the show but also to Davis’ overall mission as an actress. When asked about her legacy, the EGOT winner, who will receive the prestigious Cecil B. DeMille Award at next month’s Golden Globes, explained that it wouldn’t just be determined by “the awards and the accolades.”
“My legacy is to help people feel less alone. There’s something sacred in that relationship [between audiences and performers]. And the agreement is that I am not going to escape as an artist. I’m going to show you, you,” she continued. “You — with all the piss and the poop, and all those private moments that you don’t want to show people; all the parts of you that you probably feel that if you share with people, it would be the most shameful part of your life. I want you to be brave enough to witness that and acknowledge that, and I want to be brave enough to give it to you.”
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