Viola Davis’ Resurfaced Interview Explores Her Candid Take on Being Called the ‘Black Meryl Streep’

In a resurfaced interview from 2018, Viola Davis candidly discussed the challenges she has faced as a Black actress in Hollywood. The Oscar winner opened up about the disparities between her career and that of her White counterparts during a segment with Women in the World L.A. Salon. Davis has a stellar track record in an industry strife with inequality, but it has not come easy for her or other women of color like her.

“We get probably a tenth of what a Caucasian woman gets and I'm number one on the call sheet,” she remarked, as per Entertainment Tonight. “And then I have to go in and I have to hustle for my worth.” The 54-year-old actress, renowned for her roles in How to Get Away With Murder, Fences, Doubt, The Help, and more, elaborated on her extensive professional journey.

“I have more than a 30-year professional career...I got the Oscar, I got the Emmy, I got the two Tonys, I've done Broadway, I've done off-Broadway, I've done TV, I've done film. I've done all of it,” she asserted. “I have a career that's probably comparable to Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Sigourney Weaver,” she remarked, adding that despite that impressive resume, there's a stark difference in the opportunities and compensation.

“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. I have to constantly get on that phone to fight for my worth,” she lamented. The actress also addressed the frequent comparison to Streep, being deemed the 'Black Meryl Streep' by others. 

“People say, 'You're a Black Meryl Streep. You are and we love you. There is no one like you,’” Davis stated. Challenging the notion, she reasoned, “Okay, if there's no one like me, you think I'm like that, you pay me what I'm worth. You give me what I'm worth.” For Davis, worth extends beyond salary. It encompasses the complexity and depth of the roles offered to her. “When I delve into a role, I want something complicated too,” she explained. “I want to build the most complicated human being, but what I get is the third girl from the left.”

The disparity in income between White actors and artists of color, remains startling, even with the industry's best efforts to close it, as per Newsweek. Sofia Vergara was the only woman of color on Forbes' 2019 list of the highest-paid actresses. Given this sad reality, Davis joined forces with over 300 of Hollywood's elites in 2020 — Idris Elba, Queen Latifah, Chadwick Boseman, and others — to start the Hollywood4BlackLives initiative. 

The group released an open letter in June that year urging Hollywood to allocate more funds to the advancement of Black creatives' careers and anti-racist content. It read, “The way that Hollywood and mainstream media have contributed to the criminalization of Black people, the misrepresentation of the legal system, and the glorification of police corruption and violence has had dire consequences on Black lives.”