American actress Viola Davis, famously known for her lead role in ‘How To Get Away With Murder’ has opened up about the difficulties black actresses face in the industry.
In her recent interview with the international media, the Oscar winner spilled the beans about racism in the industry. She told, “Dark-skinned Black women do not have the same freedom as white actresses in the industry.”
The 55 years old actress said that there is still a sense that a woman has to look a certain way and be a certain age in order to be sexual on screen. “If those rules are broken, they’re broken for white actresses only,” she added.
The actress also revealed how she did not have any sense of belonging in the arena and felt like she had to make any hint of her ‘Blackness’ disappear. “I cannot say that I’m not appreciative of my training there, but I did not find a sense of belonging.
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It was a place that taught classical, Eurocentric theatre as if it was the Bible and for me, as chocolate, kinky-haired girl, there was no way in,” she was quoted as saying.
“To perform in Shakespeare, or George Bernard Shaw, or Eugene O’Neill, I felt like what was required of me was to make any hint of my Blackness disappear, that it would somehow be a good thing if the audience could forget I was Black,” she asserted.
