Viola Davis rarely slips, and when or if she does, it’s a statistical anomaly. The Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom actress could open up a Home Depot with the amount of hardware she’s collected from awards shows over the years. Davis is just one well-timed audiobook away from EGOT-ing. When it was announced that Davis was cast as Michelle Obama in the Showtime limited series The First Lady, it seemed like a sure thing. Fans online are lambasting Davis’s take on the role, but she’s responded to the haters in what the BBC calls, rather BBC-like, “a trenchant riposte.” “Critics absolutely serve no purpose,” she said. “And I’m not saying that to be nasty either.” Just that haters take “an opportunity to be cruel to you.” “But ultimately I feel like it is my job as a leader to make bold choices,” Davis went with it. “Win or fail it is my duty to do that.”
Based on these viral moments from the show, it looks like Davis is starring in How to Get Away With Assassination. Davis’s walk-into-the-role-purse-first approach to portraying former First Lady Obama is definitely the definition of a bold choice, and we agree with both the premise that sometimes you gotta swing big and the premise that Davis is, in fact, our leader. She also has a memoir coming out soon, so she might still get that EGOT after all.
