In this psychobiography, the intimate details of Viola Davis’s life from childhood to the present day are woven together to create a woman’s powerful story. Her determination and drive allowed her to overcome many obstacles on her journey to becoming one of the most celebrated actresses in Hollywood today. Viola Davis is an American, two-time Academy Award-nominated actress. Born in St. Matthews, Kentucky, to a single mother, Davis was the first in her family to graduate from high school and go on to college (Saraiya, 2020). In 1982 she received a full scholarship to The Theater School at DePaul University, where she stayed for four years performing in numerous productions before she made her way into film and television by taking small supporting roles at first, with minor breakthroughs leading up to her current status as an acting powerhouse. Her rise to fame has been called one of the most inspiring stories in Hollywood, but there are stories that lie beneath the surface of this incredibly talented, hardworking woman. His psychobiography examines Viola Davis’ life through biographical and psychological research.
On the eleventh of August, 1965, Viola Davis was born in a state known as St. Matthews, South Carolina, the youngest of six children of Mary Alice (née Smith), a maid, and Dan Davis, a horse trainer. Her siblings are Doris, and Larry, and twins Julius and Alice (Saraiya, 2020). When she was five years old, her entire family moved to Rhode Island after her father lost his job. Davis’ parents divorced when she was a teenager. Davis was raised in Central Falls, Rhode Island, the third of four children born to Donald and Glorianna (née Sullivan) Davis. Her biological father was a factory worker, while her mother worked as a maid and cook. After both of her parents divorced when she was the age of 11 years, Davis moved to nearby Providence with her mother and two sisters. She attended two high schools—Mannix High School and Pilgrim High School—and was voted prom queen at both schools.
One of Viola Davis’ many accolades includes an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award for her work as an actress and producer. Davis started her acting employment on stage and produced her film debut in the 1995 independent drama picture Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (Janicka & A. 2020). When she was cast as nurse Verna Garver in “All My Children,” she was able to easily move to television, where she appeared on the ABC soap opera for two years. A Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Motion Picture for her role in the 2010 production of Fences came after she made her Broadway debut in the 2000 release of King Hedley II.
There are vocabularies that some textbooks reveal about Davis’ personal life. One is poverty, where Viola Davis grew up in poverty and overcame challenges to become a successful actress. Personal growth: The humanistic perspective would emphasize Viola Davis’ personal growth and potential. This means that despite the challenges she has faced in her life, she has strived to realize her full potential. Potential: Viola Davis has always had the potential to be a successful actress. Despite growing up in poverty, she was able to graduate from college and pursue her dream. College: Viola Davis was able to graduate from college and pursue her dream of becoming an actress. Successful: Viola Davis is a successful actress. Despite the challenges she has faced in her life, she has achieved her goals. Actress: Viola Davis is an actress. She has been able to achieve success in her career despite the challenges she has faced in her life. Challenges: Viola Davis has faced challenges in her life but has still achieved her goals. Life: Viola Davis has had a life full of challenges but has still overcome them and become a successful actress.
Davis has described herself as having been “raised by a single mother who worked 16 hours a day… I did not have plenty of mothers around, I didn’t know a lot of families around. I didn’t have the experience of living with many families (Baron & C., 2018).” Davis was voted “Most Dramatic” by her classmates as a Central Falls High School student. She took acting classes at the community theatre and sang in the school choir during her teenage years. She was inspired by her older sister, who also became an actress.
After graduating from high school in 1983, Davis studied theatre at Rhode Island College. She was awarded a full scholarship to the Juilliard School in New York City, where she attained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1988 (Sobande & F., 2019). Davis made her professional acting debut in the early 1990s, appearing in several Off-Broadway and regional theatre productions (Saraiya, 2020). She produced her drama film debut late in 1995 independent drama film known as “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads,” and her television debut in the 1996 ABC soap opera All My Children. In 2001, Davis starred in the HBO film “Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows,” for which she received her first Emmy Award nomination.
In 2002, Davis began her career on the talent show Star Search, and after winning, she was signed to an acting agent. For the next several years, she later appeared in commercials. Davis had minor roles in several television shows before being cast as a teenage father on The Secret Life of the American Teenager. In 2000, she was cast in UPN’s sitcom Boston Public where she played Angela Pritchett, the troubled teenager who became pregnant in season three. The series received critical acclaim and three Emmy nominations. Davis also shared a screen with Beyoncé Knowles in the 2003 musical drama adaptation.
In 2002, she was awarded the Satellite Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for her performance as the troubled mother, Rose Maxson, in Antwone Fisher. Her performance also garnered her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. It also earned her an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture and a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role. In addition, Davis won an award from the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association and was honored with numerous honors and positive reviews from film critics.
She has a starring role in Widows, a 2018 heist film. The Last Black Man in San Francisco, in which she starred in 2019, was released in 2019. Awards and nominations in the film industry Viola Davis have racked up a slew of accolades over her illustrious acting career, including an Oscar, two Primetime Emmys, and a Tony. For her work in Doubt and The Help, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2008 and 2011. “How to Get Away with Murder” was also nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2014.
How to Get Away with Murder is a primetime comedy-drama on ABC. The series is produced by Shonda Rhimes and stars Viola Davis as Annalise Keating, who teaches law at her own Philadelphia university. How to Get away with Murder was recognized for its first season, premiered in September 2014, and earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Drama Series. The show also stars Billy Brown, Alfred Enoch, and Jack Falahee; Davis was recognized for her work in the ABC drama How to Get Away with Murder, earning her an Emmy nomination in 2015 (Desta & Y., 2018). Because of her performance in the drama series How to Get Away with Murder on ABC in 2016, she was considered for an Emmy in Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. These nominations would further establish Davis as an A-list actress.
In 2003, Davis married actor Julius Tennon. They have two children: a daughter, Genesis, and a son, Gabriel. Davis is a Christian. In 2012, Davis was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. The psychodynamic perspective would examine Viola Davis’s childhood and family life to understand how her early experiences may have shaped her as a person (Saraiya & S., 2020). The psychosocial perspective would focus on social and cultural factors in her life and how they have affected her psychological development. The biological perspective would look at genetics and physiology in her life and their influence on her mental health.
The humanistic perspective would emphasize Viola Davis’ personal growth and potential and how she has strived to realize her full potential despite the challenges she has faced in her life. For example, Viola Davis graduated from college despite growing up in poverty and became a successful actress. The cognitive perspective would focus on the role of thought and cognition in her life and how her thoughts and beliefs have influenced her actions and overall psychological development. The behavioral perspective would examine the role of learning and conditioning in her life and how her past experiences have shaped her current behavior. Finally, the social/cultural perspective would look at social and cultural factors in her life and how they have affected her psychological development.
References
Saraiya, S. (2020). Viola Davis: My entire life has been a protest. Vanity Fair.
Sobande, F. (2019). How to get away with authenticity: Viola Davis and the intersections of Blackness, naturalness, femininity and relatability. Celebrity Studies, 10(3), 396-410.
Baron, C. (2018). Viola Davis: A Context for Her Craft and Success in Series Television. Exploring Television Acting, 79-94.
Janicka, A. (2020). To be sentimental, powerful, and Black: Affective agency in Viola Davis’s award speeches. In Yearbook of the Poznań Linguistic Meeting (Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 159-181).
Desta, Y. (2018). Viola Davis regrets making The Help: “It wasn’t the voices of the maids that were heard.”. Vanity Fair, 10, 58.