Viola Davis may be an Oscar-winner but she also counts kissing Liam Neeson on-screen as a career highlight.
Well, it is quite a moment.
The How To Get Away with Murder actress stars alongside Liam, 66, in Steve McQueens critically-acclaimed new movie Widows, in which they play a married couple, Veronica and Harry Rawlings.
Kissing the Irish actor is a milestone for Viola, not because she fancies him – although she does refer to him as hunky – but because she never thought she would see herself, as a black woman, kissing the handsome white male lead.
Addressing the opening scene of Widows, which shows the pair intimately in bed, Viola, 53, told The Guardian: For me, this is something youll not see this year, last year, the year before that.
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That is, a dark-skinned woman of colour, at 53-years-old, kissing Liam Neeson. Not just kissing a white man. Liam Neeson, a hunk. And kissing him sexually, romantically.
Viola continued: Nobody will pay attention to that. And if you mention it to someone, I think theyll feel like its hip and its funky that they didnt notice it. But will you see it again? If you dont think thats a big deal, then tell me, why isnt it happening more? Theres a part of me that can answer that.
In Widows, Viola sports her natural afro hair earning praise from many women of colour.
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Addressing the typical standards of beauty in Hollywood, Viola said: A lot of things I didnt believe in, in order to further my career. All the things I thought had great value havent served me. Its been the whole hair thing.
Even the weight thing, how I look in a dress, how I look on the red carpet. Ive never been the beauty queen… Still, you hold on to the feeling of “Do people think Im pretty?” But pretty doesnt have a value. Pretty didnt serve me when I was grieving for my father when he passed away.
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