Here are some photos from the premiere event for all of Shonda Rhimes’ Shondaland productions, Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder. As you can see, Kerry Washington, Ellen Pompeo and Viola Davis posed together on the red carpet. Such lovely leading ladies! The only designer ID I have is on Kerry’s dress, which is Mary Katrantzou. The dress is pretty but I want to tweak Kerry’s look a little bit. I want to give her a side part and maybe some bright lipstick, I think. But I love Viola’s whole look. That’s a woman who can rock the hell out of fuchsia.
As you can imagine, people are still talking about the NYT “think piece” about how Shonda Rhimes is an “angry black woman” who writes angry black female characters who are so mean, angry and black, of course. One of the most insulting parts of an already terrible article was when Alessandra Stanley wrote, in reference to Viola Davis: “Ms. Rhimes chose a performer who is older, darker-skinned and less classically beautiful than Ms. Washington, or for that matter Halle Berry, who played an astronaut on the summer mini-series ‘Extant.’” UGH I HATE YOU. Viola Davis is beautiful. BEAUTIFUL, I say. Anyway, Viola’s on Twitter now and this is what she wrote in response to the NYT piece:
You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I'll rise!!!
— Viola Davis (@violadavis) September 20, 2014
Yep. Viola is everything. What’s also interesting to note is that less than a week before Stanley’s piece was published, the NYT did a very interesting interview with Viola where she talked a lot about being marginalized in roles that often seem like stereotypes and racist stock characters. Viola told the NYT:
“I have been given a lot of roles that are downtrodden, mammy-ish,” she said. “A lot of lawyers or doctors who have names but absolutely no lives. You’re going to get your three or four scenes, you’re not going to be able to show what you can do. You’re going to get your little bitty paycheck, and then you’re going to be hungry for your next role, which is going to be absolutely the same. That’s the truth.”
By the way, I would totally recommend everyone read that NYT interview with Viola. It’s a wonderful piece and I wish I had covered it last week, but I only saw it for the first time this weekend. After reading it, I kind of wonder if Alessandra Stanley glanced through Viola’s interview and thought, “Oh, she’s talking about racist tropes in Hollywood, that’s given me a great idea for a think piece about how she’s an angry black woman.”
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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