Viola Davis To Receive The ‘Women In Motion’ Award At 2022 Cannes Film Festival

May 12, 2022 by Monique Nicole in Film with 0 Comments

Viola Davis

Viola Davis To Receive The ‘Women In Motion’ Award At 2022 Cannes Film Festival

Congratulations are in order for Viola Davis!

The 56-year-old Academy Award-winning actress will be honored with the 2022 Women In Motion Award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. According to reports, this award honors iconic figures from the film industry, whose career has been an inspiration to others. Viola Davis was praised by the award’s organizers for,

“her acting roles and her commitment to the rights of women and minorities.”

They also said she is,

“one of the most influential American actresses and producers of her time…Her talent, hard work, choice of roles and the way she interprets them have earned her the very highest recognitions in the film industry.”

The organizers added that Viola Davis,

“is one of the few Hollywood personalities to have won a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, four SAG Awards, and what Hollywood calls the Triple Crown of Acting: two Tony Awards, an Oscar and an Emmy, for her roles in the stage play “King Hedley II,” in “Fences” and its remarkable film adaptation, and in the TV series “How to Get Away with Murder.”

Viola Davis recently did an interview with Oprah Winfrey in a Netflix special to discuss her newly released memoir “Finding Me.” In the novel, Davis speaks about her childhood in South Carolina, along with some of her experiences in the entertainment industry. While chatting with Oprah Winfrey, Davis shared how as a child her hygiene was negatively affected as a result of her poor living conditions. She recalled an incident at her school where she and her sister were called to the school office due to their “smell.” She said,

“I think that people just automatically assume you just clean yourself. Well, not if anyone doesn’t show you. A lot of times we didn’t have any soap. A lot of times we didn’t even have any clean clothes.”

Viola Davis

Davis continued and revealed that a school teacher showed “compassion” and “empathy,” calling her to the office to give her a “bag full of the most beautiful clothes that were hand-me-downs from her daughter.”

She added,

“When you are in the face of compassion and empathy, it’s amazing how it kills shame. Because you’re seen, and you’re seen for something way more valuable than your circumstances.”

Davis also briefly spoke about what it was like to set boundaries as a little black girl. She shared,

“You know, it’s just not that dirty old man on the street who wanted to give you a quarter, but then wanted a kiss. No one knows what boundaries are with little girls, especially back in the day. So if a guy said, ‘Give me a kiss,’ someone said, ‘Oh, give him a kiss. It’s not a big deal.’ Or someone leaves you with a male babysitter because that male babysitter is a friend of the family, and then your parents go out, and they leave you alone.”

Viola Davis is currently playing Michelle Obama in Showtime’s The First Lady. She will also star in the upcoming film The Woman King, which is slated for release this fall.

Congratulations to Viola Davis! What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below!

[Source: 1, 2 ]