Viola Davis Talks Claiming Her Worth In Hollywood

Viola Davis Talks Claiming Her Worth In Hollywood

Viola Davis says it’s high time Hollywood put some REAL respect on her name.

While chatting with Tina Brown at Thursday Night’s Women in the World Salon event, the actress got real about how despite her matching credentials to some of her counterparts…she has had nowhere near the same consideration, pay, or juicy roles that others in her same acting shoes have. Via People:

“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. 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.”

Viola was classically trained in acting at Julliard herself. Though she’s garnered an Oscar win and multiple nominations, she acknowledges that her name (and bank account) simply isn’t synonymous with some of the acting greats that it should be — despite obvious comparison.

“People say, ‘You’re a black Meryl Streep…We love you. There is no one like you. OK, then if there’s no one like me, you think I’m that, you pay me what I’m worth.”

She says she hasn’t been granted as many meaty characters as she’d like over her 30-year career…but the time for taking shorts is OVER for her.

“As an artist, I want to build the most complicated human being but what I get is the third girl from the left. It’s gotten to the point [where] I’m no longer doing that. I’m not hustling for my worth. I’m worthy. When I came out of my mom’s womb, I came in worthy.”

Her overall message was that you have to claim what’s yours and not settle for the lesser. Good for Viola!

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