Viola Davis responded to critics of her portrayal of Michelle Obama in Showtime’s “First Lady,” acknowledging that “not everything will be award-worthy.”
at Interview with BBC News To promote her new memoir, “Finding Me,” the Academy Award, Tony, and Emmy Award-winning actress has spoken candidly about her role as the former first lady, drawing sharp criticism from audiences and critics for Davis’ attitude to Obama’s facial expressions and lips.
“How do you go from harm, from failure?” Davis said. “But you must. Not everything will be worth the awards.”
Davis told the BBC: “The critics serve no purpose whatsoever. And I’m not saying that to be bad either.
“They always feel like they’re telling you something you don’t know,” she continued. “In a way you live a life surrounded by people who lie to you and ‘I’ll be the one to lean in and tell you the truth,’ so this gives them a chance to be the toughest you are. But in the end I feel like my job as a leader is to make bold choices. Win or fail it’s my duty to do that.”
One could argue that Davis had the toughest job out of the three lead characters in the series Susan Beer directed, with Michelle Pfeiffer and Gillian Anderson portraying the White House moms decades ago. Pfeiffer played Betty Ford, who served as First Lady from 1974 to 1977 and died in 2005, and Anderson as Eleanor Roosevelt, who was First Lady between 1933 and 1945 and died in 1962.
Davis, who said she had not had any personal contact with Obama, noted that playing a globally recognized contemporary character from the likes of Obama was “almost possible”: “Either you’re doing too much, or you’re not enough,” she said.
More is coming.
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