Viola Davis Gave the Best Answer About Why She's Starring in a TV Show

Oscar nominee offers and amazing response about why she took her latest job

By Chris Harnick Jul 15, 2014 11:06 PMTags
Viola Davis, TCAMark Davis/Getty Images

Viola Davis, two-time Oscar nominee, is coming to TV this fall with How to Get Away With Murder. Why? Well, Davis gave a very honest answer at the 2014 TCA Summer Press Tour.

"The attraction was the material, yes. I think that I was—I think the day of choosing TV over film and TV somehow diminishing your career as an actor or actress, I think, has changed. I think people migrate towards material, especially after they reach a certain age, certain hue, certain sex. And I have to say, and I will be bold enough to say, that I have gotten so many wonderful film roles, but I've gotten even more film roles where I haven't been the show. It's like I've been invited to a really fabulous party, only to hold up the wall," Davis told the crowd of reporters who erupted in laughter.

But wait, there's more.

ABC/Craig Sjodin

"I wanted to be the show. I wanted to have a character that kind of took me out of my comfort zone. And that character happened to be in a Shonda Rhimes show in How to Get Away With Murder. And so I did the only smart thing that any sensible actress would do, and I took it. I dove at it.  And I love the fact that she's messy and mysterious and you don't know who she is. She's not necessarily nurturing and, 'Come sit on my lap so I can talk to you, baby.' She's not the kind of person that—doesn't need God, Jesus, or Buddha, because she knows all the answers. She's messy. She's a woman. She's sexual. She's vulnerable. And I think—I feel extremely fortunate that I am alive and still active and this role came to me at this point in my life," she said.

Her honesty? It's refreshing.

Davis stars as Annalise Keating on the new legal drama How to Get Away With Murder from Rhimes, Betsy Beers and Peter Nowalk. In the series, Davis plays an ace attorney and law professor who takes a key group of law students under her wing. It's soapy, sexy and everything you want in a series from Rhimes.

How to Get Away With Murder airs on Thursdays on ABC, which is now Shonda Rhimes night. The series premieres Thursday, Sept. 25 at 10 p.m. on ABC.