Source: WENN

Viola Davis

CALLING: Actor and activist

WHY WE’RE SALUTING HER: 

Viola Davis has made us proud on and off screen through dedication to her craft and the ability to intertwine her passion for improving education into her movie roles, while simultaneously introducing a new aesthetic of beauty to be celebrated in Hollywood.

Though Davis’s name has only recently begun to be heard on the tongues of nearly every prominent figure in the movie business, she’s actually been a strong force in the entertainment industry for some time now. Davis majored in theatre at Rhode Island College, where she graduated from in 1988 — and later received an honorary doctorate in Fine Arts from in 2002 —  and a year later attended Julliard for four year as a member of the school’s Drama Division’s Group 22 from 1989–1993.

Only a few years later, the St. Matthews, SC, native won her first Tony and Drama Desk Award for her portrayal of a 35-year-old mother fighting for the right to abort a pregnancy in King Hedley II. A number of roles in major Hollywood productions followed that win, including parts in Antoine Fisher, Out of Sight, and Solaris. In 2008, Davis was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Doubt, and  a year later she was inducted into The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Just one other year after that, Davis won a second Tony Award for her role as Rose Maxson in a revival of Fences, becoming only the second African American woman to win the award after Phylicia Rashad.

It could be said that in 2011 Davis took on her biggest role yet as Abilene Clark in the movie adaptation of The Help. Despite criticism from some who weren’t interested in seeing Black woman portrayed in a servant role, Davis was lauded for her performance with nominations for Golden Globe, BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild, and Academy Awards.

It was during the recognition for her role in The Help, that Viola repped for naturalistas everywhere when she hit the red carpet at the 2012 Oscars without her characteristic straight wigs, but with a teeny weeny afro that she was encouraged to rock by her husband.  For staying true to herself while still giving her all to her roles on the big screen, we salute Viola Davis.

Click here to meet all of our salutes.

From Eur Web

In “The Help,” Viola Davis famously played a maid who discovers her own power.

Her new film “Beautiful Creatures” is based on a book in which her character Amma is also a maid – but with telepathic power.

All dark magic aside, the maid part of the deal, for Davis, caused initial hesitation in moving forward with the role.

“As soon as I saw that Amma was a housekeeper, my radar went up because of ‘The Help,’” Davis told us during interviews for the film last weekend in Los Angeles. “I said, ‘I can’t be another housekeeper.’”

Check out the rest of the interview on EurWeb.com.

FayesVision/WENN/com

There are few people in this world who can say they’ve made it to a certain level in their careers without hard work and perhaps, someone who didn’t mind lending a helping hand.

Oscar winner Octavia Spencer has taken it upon herself to lend that hand in her industry. EURweb is reporting that Spencer is currently holding a contest on her Facebook page for aspiring filmmakers. She explained that she knows the struggle of “making it big” in the industry because it was the same way with her and many of her friends.  As she stated:

“What many people don’t know is that it takes an average of 15 years to become an over night success. At least that’s how long it took me and my friends. But, in that time you must create and continue to hone your skills. If you are a musician, write poetry and turn it into an amazing song. If you are a filmmaker write a short and shoot it. I’ve done it twice now. I know it’s not easy. Two of my friends shot beautiful, award winning shorts on the CANON EOS 60D. One of those films was shortlisted to potentially receive an Oscar nomination yesterday. Trust me I know money is tight.  So, in honor of Award Season, I’d like to help someone else see their dream realized.”

Each film, which must be in short form, must be posted right on her page and cannot exceed 20 minutes in length. All filmmakers can enter as many films as they’d like but can only submit each film once.  The winner will receive a Canon EOS 60D, Platinum 6000 digital tripod and $1,000. The second and third place winners will receive $500 and $250, respectively.

All entries must be submitted before February 10th and the winner will be announced during Oscar weekend (the show will air live on February 24th).

This is a wonderful thing Spencer is doing. Not only is she encouraging up and coming artists by sharing her story (which clearly hasn’t been easy), but she’s also doing her part to further a filmmaker’s talents. There’s something to be said for a person who sees that their success can be used to build up someone else.

If you’ve got a film or have been thinking about making one, get to it and submit!

Source: WENN

Winning an Oscar is said to be the pinnacle of an actor’s career, but is walking away with a gold statue and recognition from your peers really worth anything tangible, like better movie roles and more money? Octavia Spencer says no.

This past award’s season was all about “The Help” actress, and she cleaned up in virtually ever best supporting actress category she was nominated in, from the SAGs to the Golden Globes, and the coveted Academy Awards. Octavia knew the hoopla wasn’t going to be all it was cracked up to be, remarking after she won her Golden Globe, “The studios are still not going to beat down my door unless it’s a small part in a big comedy, and I’ve done those.” Months later, and with an Oscar under her belt, her prophecy is proving to be true. In an interview with The Vulture, the star of the upcoming flick, “Smashed,” talked about how not much has changed since award season when it comes to her career. Here’s a bit of the Q&A:

While you were on set [for "The Help"], did you have a sense that your career was in the middle of a big shift?
No, the reality for me was that I thought my phone would be ringing a lot, and it wasn’t. And this project ["Smashed"] came along, and it was a great film, and it was [prior to] the success of “The Help.” Now, looking back, they get huge kudos from me. So no, because my phone wasn’t ringing off the hook, I didn’t feel like anything was changing.

Well, it must have started ringing at some point, because you have some pretty great projects coming up, like Diablo Cody’s movie andSnow Piercer.
Well, the funny is thing is that I got the Diablo Cody movie and I got “Snow Piercer” before I got any nominations, so I knew I had both of those projects in November. I don’t want to sound as if [I'm complaining]. The reality is that there are so few roles out there for women and for women of color, and I’m a character actor, this I know. And I’m getting to see more of the roles that are out there, but there aren’t many. And zilch have been studio movies. Zilch. So my challenge and my opportunity now is to take the opportunity to create my own work. I’m fine with that.

So what you’re saying is that you booked a lot of roles off The Help, but winning the Oscar — lovely though it may have been — wasn’t necessarily a big needle-mover.
It’s a needle-mover in the sense that I get to go into room and meet with really important people. If that translates into job offers, then we’ll see. It’s a needle-mover, but not that much.

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newsone.com

Octavia Spencer, the recently awarded Oscar winning actress for her role in The Help is not shy about her battles with weight loss. The 5 ft 2 in actress recently underwent a risky gastric bypass surgery and lost a significant amount of weight. Unfortunately, it seems as though she is having a lot of trouble losing any more weight due to her hard to break eating habits

Sources say “The problem is Octavia is always hungry, and she doesn’t want to eat a salad or fish for dinner,”  “Octavia likes her favorites – fried chicken, mashed potatoes and hot rolls with plenty of butter. Once you have that surgery, you can’t eat like that.”

Read more here…

They say old habits die hard, but do you think one should deprive themselves of what they love when it comes to food?

Source: filmofilia.com

That darn Meryl! She makes it so hard not to love her even though I really wanted Viola Davis to win on Sunday. According to Reuters, the morning after the Academy Awards in which Streep took home the award for Best Actress for her work in The Iron Lady, beating out Davis for her work in The Help, the winning actress decided to write a check of $10,000 to a struggling Rhode Island school in honor of her friend. Davis grew up in Central Fall, Rhode Island and was working to help the bankrupt town get back on its feet. Knowing Davis’ efforts to help her community get up and running again, Streep’s check arrived the Segue Institute for Learning on Monday morning, a school in the area facing closure. According to Reuters, the school is ecstatic about the donation:

“We’ve just been screaming from the rooftops,” said Angelo Garcia, founder and director of operations at the school. “We’re excited Meryl Streep has gotten the ball rolling for us, but we recognize there’s a long road ahead of us,” he said.

The money she sent will hopefully be used to help renovate the school and it’s accompanying community center. Allegedly Davis had discussed the school with Streep in the past, and the legendary actress wanted to have her charity, Silver Mountain Foundation for the Arts, send a check and help out.

Who knows if this was something Streep already planned for her good friend (the two worked together and became homeskillets while filming Doubt), or if she felt a certain way about winning the Oscar over Davis and wanted to show love. Can’t question a person’s reasons for giving, because either way, something wonderful and charitable came out of it! Nice.

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Source: CBS

What’s an award show without a little racial controversy? We can thank Billy Crystal for bringing us our latest dose as the host of last night’s 84th Annual Academy Awards ceremony. The New York comedian is coming under fire for not only failing to be funny—which few hosts ever are—but for masking racism as comic relief.

There were two instances in particular that made audiences have a side-eye, what he say, get this dude out of here moment. The first is what is being referred to as “the blackface skit.” Essentially what was going on was Billy was continuing his tradition of spoofing the nominated films and in this instance he was putting a spin on Woody Allen’s film Midnight in Paris by appearing as Sammy Davis, Jr. in the movie. There are a few things to note about that: One, Billy Crystal used to do an impression of Sammy routinely on Saturday Night Live during the 80s; two, Midnight in Paris is a magical travel-themed film so Billy was likely trying to relive his SNL glory days and explain some of his relevance for hosting the Oscar’s in the first place by dredging up that character; and three, isn’t there a difference between blackface and an impersonation?

I personally see blackface as a white person painting his face brown and adopting certain mannerisms for the sake of appearing as any random black person on this planet and sparking controversy, i.e. stereotyping. A white man impersonating a well-known entertainment figure who happens to be black by means of darkening his skin with makeup just has a different feel to me. Sure, Billy could have asked a black character to portray Sammy Davis Jr. but the point was for him to be inserted into the films, and again, this was a character he assumed many times throughout his comedic past. Still, most viewers felt his use of “blackface” was inappropriate, outdated, and racist.

During the show, Pop culture blogger Jorge Rivas, tweeted: “And the Oscar for Most Racist Host goes to Billy Crystal’s blackface performance.”

Comedian Paul Scheer also tweeted after the announcement of the Best Supporting Actress recipient: “Octavia Spencer’s win shows just how far we’ve come since Billy Crystal performed in Blackface.”

“The Help” became a part of Billy’s controversy in more ways than one last night. If there was any chance the Midnight in Paris skit was going to be swept under the rug, his joke about black women in Hollywood kept it fresh in people’s minds. After Octavia Spencer’s win, he returned from commercial break with a joke many found to be not so funny. He said:

“I loved that movie [The Help]…when I saw it, I wanted to hug the first black woman that I saw. Which from Beverly Hills is about a 45 minute drive.”

Maybe I’m naive but I actually saw that joke as more of a commentary on the lack of black women in Hollywood—you know the very issue we’re screaming and kicking about every day. And apparently the problem we don’t have an issue with white people bringing up unless they don’t take it seriously enough.

Lots of viewers took issue with the crack and Kim Kane, a writer for The Global Grind said she was floored by the crass joke. She detailed her reaction in an article today, writing:

“It bothers me that none of the writers stopped to think about the feelings of the other black actors and actresses in the room. It bothers me that some in the audience were so de-sensitized that they laughed out loud. It bothers me that no one considered the sensitivity of the situation – Octavia Spencer had just won an Academy Award for playing a maid, a role she’s defended to those who feel blacks are rewarded with Oscar only when their character is subservient / enforces a stereotype onscreen. It bothers me that no one will be accountable for writing such insensitive copy. It bothers me to think about struggling black actors and actresses who fall in love with an industry that lets them down. It bothers me that I’m writing this blog in 2012…that society is still recovering from the damage done by bigots who advocated racial segregation. It bothers me that the Academy would go so far as to emphasize the sentiment that black women are invisible in Hollywood, as far as they’re concerned.”

I will say there was a part of the joke that was off to me; it was the idea that “The Help” was a film that made Billy Crystal love black women. That subtle jab makes me see Kim’s point entirely. The reason nominations for “The Help” stirred so much controversy is because we keep asserting that Hollywood is most comfortable seeing black women in servant roles—as evidenced by the awarding of those performances when a black actress takes on such a part. No one—black or white—could have missed that memo with all of the discussions that have taken place about this film. So, in that sense, it was insensitive of the writers and Billy Crystal to essentially confirm suspicions that racial prejudices are still the driving force behind the Academy’s old boy network of voters. But what do we expect from a comedian who gets paid to step on toes?

Overall, I think people are being a little too sensitive about Billy Crystal’s routine last night and we’re starting to find anything that touches on race to be racist. Pretty soon that double standard of black people being able to crack jokes about white people, but white people not being allowed to say anything about black folks is going to come back and bite us—hard.

What did you think about Billy’s impersonation and his joke about black women in Hollywood? Racist, insensitive, or are people overreacting?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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Source: Digital Spy

Award season has come to a close with a couple of big wins for African Americans in the industry. At last night’s 84th Annual Academy Awards ceremony, Octavia Spencer took home an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in “The Help.”

Octavia was moved to tears by the win, thanking the Academy for putting her with “the hottest guy in the room,” and also shouting out her family in her home state of Alabama, her LA family, and of course, her “Help” family.

Speaking of “The Help,” Cast mate Viola Davis who was up for an Academy Award for Best Leading Actress lost to Meryl Streep for her portrayal of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in “Iron Lady,” but the Oscar contender still made a statement. Taking her husband’s hair advice, Viola showed up au natural in an emerald Vera Wang gown and looked stunning on the red carpet.

In a surprising win, Diddy also garnered an Oscar last night for “Undefeated.” Diddy was the executive producer behind the high school football film and the Academy recognized the work with an award for Best Documentary. Diddy—shockingly—didn’t hit the stage to accept the award with the other members of the production team, but he did tweet his own form of an acceptance speech, writing: “Holy s***!!!! God is the greatest!!!! Thank you! #undefeated !!!!”

Check out Octavia Spencer’s emotional acceptance speech here. Did you catch last night’s ceremony?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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askmen.com

Call it superstition or just plain crazy but there is something to be said about the infamous “Oscar curse”.  The belief is that any woman who wins the “Best Actress” award will somehow be divorced shortly after. Even if one doesn’t believe in it, it’s hard to explain the coincidences of Sandra Bullock (2010), Kate Winslet (2009), Reese Witherspoon (2006), Hilary Swank (2005), Halle Berry (2002) and Julia Roberts (2001) all of whose marriages/relationships ended right after the Oscars.

This year’s Oscar front-runner appears to be Viola Davis, who played the leading role in The Help, and many are scratching their heads and wondering: if she is the winner, will her 9-year marriage to actor Julius Tennon crash and burn like her category sisters?

Find out the 3 reasons why some of Hollywood’s leading ladies fall victim to the curse and how they and other successful single ladies can prevent the destruction of their relationships after huge success. Read Here

The Academy Awards are on Sunday! With Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer getting a lot of love for their work in The Help, we hope that it will be an easy win from them on the big day (but you know how the Academy can play folks). While we’re happy for their accolades, we’d also like to acknowledge a few other actresses whose roles should have garnered a lot more love from the allegedly majority white, male, old guys in the Academy. Just on a side note, some of these ladies weren’t even nominated, but their performances deserved some recognition in our eyes. These are just a few of our favorite picks, but feel free to share your own faves in the comments.

Source: neebeep.com

Whoopi Goldberg as Celie in The Color Purple

Lost to: Geraldine Page in The Trip to Bountiful

Not to stereotype, but I’m pretty sure most black folks have seen The Color Purple. While we can all attest to the fact that Steven Spielberg’s attempt to bring Alice Walker’s book to life was masterful, it got no love from the Academy, folks. It did rack up 11 nominations, but wound up being the “India Arie” (as Common would say) of the ’85 ceremonies, going home empty handed. While Oprah did transform big time in front of our eyes, presenting herself in a way we hadn’t seen before, I felt as though Whoopi gave a consistent and courageous performance as Celie. She went from a meek, abused an unloved wife, to an outspoken, pants wearing free woman. Whoopi would go on later to win an Academy Award for her work in the film Ghost, so I’m sure she’s not too pissed about this robbery.