By Wanique Block
American actress and producer Viola Davis was awarded with the Women in Motion award at the Cannes Film Festival.
Wearing an electric lime green pants suit, Viola Davis garnered the attention of the audience at she eloquently expressed her wish to be the change and elevate story telling by becoming a beacon of hope for people of colour.
“As a little chocolate girl, that grew up in Central Falls, Rhode Island, in abject poverty, with a certain level of poverty, I always wanted my life to matter. I wanted to leave this earth with a big fat hole in it, and I felt the way to do that was to become an actress, but now that I’ve progressed in my career, what I’ve realized is that I want to elevate storytelling for people of colour”, Viola said in her acceptance speech.
Speaking of the award, Viola also notes that with this acknowledgement of her legacy and career she wants to shift the narrative women of colour too. She further explains that it is no longer acceptable for women to be defined by men or any other structures beside themselves.
“It means an acknowledgement of my legacy, which is what I want to shift the narrative of women of colour to. It’s no longer acceptable for us to be defined by men, defined by any other structure other than ourselves, and it became obvious to me as I was progression in my career that I had to be the change that I wanted to see, and that why we started this. I want to see black women for the beautiful, complicated beings that they are.”
Viola, who is committed to calling out the lack of diversity in Film and Hollywood at large will be starring in the up-and-coming film, The Woman King, alongside South Africa’s Thuso Mbedu and Zozibini Tunzi.
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