Viola Davis Speech Oscars: Watch 'Fences' Star Accept Best Supporting Actress Award [VIDEO]
Viola Davis won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her searing performance in Fences.
Davis, who plays Rose Maxson in Fences, accepted the award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role at the Oscars Sunday night. She beat fellow Supporting Actress nominees Naomie Harris for Moonlight, Nicole Kidman for Lion, Octavia Spencer for Hidden Figures and Michelle Williams for Manchester by the Sea.
In her speech, Davis paid tribute to the profession of acting for bringing the beauty of ordinary people to life. She also emotionally thanked Fences writer August Wilson and the entire cast.
Before this, Davis had won the Supporting Actress categories at the Critics' Choice Awards, the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the BAFTAs for her performance, which many awards experts see as an unbeatable combination that all but guarantees Oscar glory. She also won a slew of critics prizes, including the New York Film Critics Online, the African-American Film Critics Association and the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association.
Davis made history this year as the most nominated black actress in Oscar history, with Fences being her third nomination. She was nominated for Supporting Actress for playing Mrs. Miller in 2008's Doubt and Lead Actress for playing Aibileen Clark in 2011's The Help. The actress was predicted by some to win in 2011 after winning the SAG Award, but Meryl Streep beat her at the Oscars for The Iron Lady.
This has also been an incredible few years for Davis. Her bold performance in How to Get Away with Murder earned her the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, becoming the first black actress to do so in the organization's history. The series just ended its third season, with a fourth to come in the fall. She also starred in one of the biggest movies of 2016, Suicide Squad, playing Amanda Waller.
