Viola Davis

Summary

Good Hang with Amy Poehler — Viola Davis (March 17, 2026)

---

Episode Overview

In this vibrant and revealing episode of Good Hang, Amy Poehler sits down with the iconic Viola Davis. The conversation is a joyful and intimate exploration of Viola’s personal and professional life, covering everything from her East Coast upbringing, career-defining moments, hilarious marriage stories, her new book (co-written with James Patterson), her relationship to aging, and what it means to love and be loved. Before their chat, Amy interviews Julius Tennon (Viola’s husband and partner in Juvie Productions), adding another layer of warmth and insight. Throughout, laughter and honesty reign, making this a rich listen whether you're a Viola devotee or new to her world.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

---

1. The Epic Love Story: Viola & Julius Tennon (02:36–13:09, 65:16–76:28)

• How They Met [04:02]

  • Julius and Viola met on the set of City of Angels in 1999. Julius recalls giving his business card to Viola and the story of his shirt being on (thankfully, according to Viola).
  • “If my shirt had been off, she would have never called me.”—Julius [04:02]
  • After a month, Viola called, sparking a relationship that’s lasted 27 years and 23 years of marriage.

• Building a Life Together [05:48]

  • They support each other’s careers, navigate financial struggles together, and stress individual self-esteem as a foundation for partnership.
  • “If your woman knows that you can handle yourself and that you know who you are, then she’s going to go, ‘wow, hey, my guy’s good.’”—Julius [06:34]
  • Authenticity and support are the cornerstones of their relationship.

• Levity in Love [75:11]

  • Laughter and honesty infuse their story—sharing tales about bad credit, playing detective over missing saltines, and supporting one another’s dreams.
  • “We looked for the person together in the attic until I finally found the saltine crackers near the tuna fish. I love it. I do.”—Viola [66:01]
  • The importance of having a partner who helps you build a better life and celebrates who you are is underscored.

---

2. Viola’s Journey: Roots, Acting, and Self-Discovery

• East Coast Upbringing & Family [17:25–21:59]

  • Growing up in Rhode Island in a large, plainspoken, Black family, Viola reflects on language (the infamous “bubbler” and “wicked good”), directness, and negotiating identity.
  • “[My parents] were that plain spoken.” [20:10]
  • The East Coast “roughness” helps form a resilient, candid personality.

• Finding Acting [22:55]

  • Viola traces her journey from shy child winning a local skit contest with her sisters, through to Juilliard and Broadway.
  • “I was so shy… We did the skit, you know, and I played the oo wee kid from That’s My Mama… And we won.” [23:15, 25:02]
  • Acting became a gradual realization, not a lightning-bolt moment.

• Classical Training, Authenticity & Accents [21:03–24:18]

  • Discusses being “traumatized” out of her Rhode Island accent at Juilliard, but learning to see the value in where she’s from.
  • “They put a pencil in your mouth during rehearsal… I was traumatized into just catapulting that, not realizing that’s a beautiful thing.” [21:38]

---

3. On the Craft: Work Ethic, Shakespeare, and Collaboration [26:39–44:35]

• Memorizing Shakespeare

  • “Memorizing is the least difficult part of acting.”—Viola [27:24]
  • The real challenge is living truthfully within the work, especially with heightened language.

• Lifting the Curtain on Theater Myths

  • Shares an anecdote of Meryl Streep forgetting lines on the set of Doubt—proving that even legends have their off moments. [28:03–28:45]
  • Discusses why boring Shakespeare is an actor’s failure: “If you don’t know what they’re saying, then they’re not doing it correctly.” [29:34]

• Respecting Each Other’s Roles

  • Viola is adamant that actors should never criticize fellow actors, only writers. [41:02–42:48]
  • Amy agrees: “Actors should spend a day being a writer getting notes from actors. Absolutely.” [42:48]

---

4. The EGOT Status, Ambition & Excellence [13:59–16:31]

• Viola is the podcast’s first EGOT guest, but winning the Oscar for Fences was the first time she realized EGOT status was within reach.
• Discusses the importance of “the spirit of excellence” over ego, referencing a Timothée Chalamet Oscar speech:
  • “Passion too is different than ego.”—Viola [16:23]

---

5. Iconic Collaborations and Meryl Streep Stories [52:01–55:27]

• Viola discusses “pissing your pants” acting opposite greats like Meryl, Denzel, and Chadwick Boseman.
  • “You and Meryl meet. Of course, you guys are friends and, like, respect each other because you’re both so good.” [52:56]
• Shares her delightfully awkward fan-girling moments with Meryl on the set of Doubt. [53:00–55:27]
  • “You got beautiful skin. I know. What… I actually said that to Meryl Streep. I love you.” [54:00]

---

6. The Woman King: Breaking Hollywood Norms [08:22, 26:44, 44:40–51:55]

• How Julius and Viola pushed through industry obstacles to produce a landmark film that centers Black women’s strength and breaks from cinematic convention.
  • “Less dirt and more lipstick. Are you freaking kidding me?”—Viola on Hollywood’s resistance [44:40]
  • Viola trained five hours a day for months to embody her warrior role, describing the liberating experience of owning her powerful body in her 50s.
  • “It was the first time I could walk into a room and totally be in my body.”—Viola [49:19]
  • On beauty: “Why does it have to be tied to male desirability? It’s never tied to being capable.” [50:00]

---

7. Comedy, Play, and Hilarious Home Life [56:07–57:21, 73:28–74:52]

• Viola grew up loving dirty comics like Mom’s Mabley, Richard Pryor, and Red Foxx. Comedy, particularly the irreverent kind, is a source of daily joy for her and Julius.
  • “The dirtier, the better.”—Viola [56:32]
• Most of her laughs come from home, especially with her husband’s impressions and quirks—he’s a “character,” making even the search for missing crackers epic.

---

8. Writing: Memoir, New Book, and Revisiting the Past [57:21–62:03]

• Viola reflects on her memoir’s impact, hearing from her fourth-grade teacher after publication, and the mix of shame and gratitude the memories bring.
  • “[My teacher] saved these pictures and she saved some of my writings… You captured something in me that I didn’t know I had.” [58:15–60:19]
• Introduces Judge Stone, her new novel with James Patterson, which takes on abortion rights in Alabama through the story of a 13-year-old girl named Nova. [60:51]

---

9. Aging, Self-Possession and Looking Forward [76:40–78:03]

• On turning 60:
  • “In your 60s, your life is yours. That’s the best part of it. Your life is yours. You realize that… None of that shit means shit.”—Viola [76:43]
  • She feels more herself, more courageous, and more focused on what truly matters—love, legacy, and authenticity.

---

Notable Quotes & Golden Moments (with Timestamps)

• On Partnership:

  • “It’s about supporting one another. You support one, the other supports the other equally. And that’s what we did.”—Julius [05:57]

• On Authenticity:

  • “She’s the same woman I met when I met her all those years ago. Hadn’t changed a bit.”—Julius on Viola [08:04]

• On Chasing Excellence, Not Ego:

  • “Some people mistake their presence for the event… but it’s great that he [Timothée Chalamet] had the spirit of excellence.” —Viola [15:26]

• On Shakespeare:

  • “What the hell are you saying?”—Viola [29:00]

• On Hollywood's Beauty Standards:

  • “It’s never ours… it’s always tied to male desirability. It’s never tied to being capable.” —Viola [49:59]

• On Aging:

  • “On your last day on earth, the definition of hell is—your last day on earth, who you became meets the person you could have become. I feel that’s 60s, man.” —Viola [76:43]

• On Love and Levity:

  • “You need to take your ass to New York and you need to do that damn play. Because here’s the thing. You ain’t got no damn job, and we not bringing in any damn money.” —Julius [74:52]

---

Memorable Segments & Timestamps

• Julius Tennon Mini-Interview: Love, Teamwork, and the Origin of “Zuni”

  • [02:36–13:09]

• EGOT Discussion and Ambition vs. Ego

  • [13:59–16:31]

• Rhode Island/Boston Roots, Accents, and Family

  • [17:25–21:59]

• Acting Origins, Skit Contest, and Juilliard Talk

  • [22:51–26:39]

• Woman King: Making & Cultural Impact, Hollywood Resistance

  • [08:22, 44:40–51:56]

• Vivid Meryl Streep Encounters on Set

  • [52:01–55:27]

• Comedy and Dirty Jokes at Home

  • [56:07–57:21]

• Memoir Fallout & New Book with James Patterson

  • [57:21–62:03]

• Skydiving for Cool-Mom Points

  • [62:35–64:40]

• Deep Love and Levity with Julius—Saltine cracker caper

  • [65:16–66:05]

• “Zuni” and “Shadow of a Gunman” Relationship Stories

  • [69:27–73:20]

• On Reaching Her 60s and What’s Ahead

  • [76:40–78:03]

---

Tone & Takeaway

The episode sparkles with warmth, candor, and laughter. Amy’s signature wit meets Viola’s deep self-knowledge and humor, pulling listeners in with tales both raw and hilarious. The real pleasures of life—love, truth, laughter, self-acceptance—are spotlighted in this conversation that goes well beyond career to the heart of what it means to truly live and love.

---

Highly recommended segments:

• Julius Tennon interview for deep relationship goals
• Woman King insights for a crash course in defying Hollywood norms
• Viola’s family and Juilliard stories for inspiration and laughs
• Saltine crackers and Zuni for pure comedy gold
• Closing thoughts on aging for perspective and hope

---

If you haven’t listened, this summary will leave you feeling like you’ve “hung” with two of culture’s best “good hangs.”

Transcript

[A]

This message is brought to you by Apple Card. Apple Card members can earn unlimited daily cash back on everyday purchases wherever they shop. This means you could be earning daily cash on just about anything, like a slice of pizza from your local pizza place or a latte from the corner coffee shop. Apply for Apple Card in the Wallet app to see your credit limit offer in minutes. Subject to credit approval. Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City branch terms and [e-mail]. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of Good Hang. We have the best of the best. We have the goat. We have Viola Davis joining us. And man, we talk about so many fun things. We talk about growing up in Rhode island and Boston and how we get rid of those accents. We talk about our mutual best friend Meryl Streep. We talk about the time she jumped out of a plane and all the swearing she did on the way down. And we talk about the new book that she co wrote with James Patterson called Judge Stone Out Now. So we're gonna get into a lot of great stuff and we're thrilled to have her here. And as we always do, we talk to someone at the beginning of the show that we that knows our guest or is a fan of our guest and has a question for us. And we talk well behind their back. And boy, we've got just a gem of a person. Julius Tennon, Viola Davis's husband, partner, producing partner, incredible, loving, supportive, wonderful man who makes us all believe in love. He's the only spouse that we've allowed to be on the show so far and the expectation is high. So I cannot wait to talk to Julius. Julius, thank you for joining us. Hi. This episode of Good Hang is presented by Subaru. Some cars go the extra mile long range. Subaru hybrids take that to a whole new level with up to 597 miles per tank in the Crosstrek hybrid, a car that I've given my family and up to 581miles per tank in the Forester Hybrid, another car that I also enjoy. Subaru Love goes the extra mile. Visit subaru.com hybrid to learn more. Range based on EPA estimated combined fuel economy and a full tank of fuel, actual mileage and range may vary. Hello, Julius, can you hear me?

[B]

I can. Hey.

[A]

Hi. It's such a pleasure to meet you.

[B]

It's a pleasure to meet you, too. And I just want to say quickly that we love you and you're always amazing and funny as hell and all that stuff. So, so nice to meet you, Julius.

[A]

Thank you so much you're welcome. You got me blushing already. Thank you for saying that. I want you to know that we. I mean it. Well, I can tell that about you. I think you. You say what you mean. You and Viola.

[B]

Yes. Yes, we do.

[A]

Thank you for that. We, you know, so we do this thing at the beginning of. Whenever we interview someone, we talk to someone that knows them really well, and we get a question, and for them, and we just talk well behind their back. And I want you to know you are the first spouse that we have spoken to among all of our guests. I feel honored, and I think it's because you two seem to actually really like each other.

[B]

We kind of do. We kind of do

[A]

now. Pleasure to meet you, Julius. You know, you're an actor, writer, producer. You're the president of Juvie Productions, which is the company that you and Viola and others run. And you've got amazing projects that you've done and are. And are getting ready to do. But can I start by just asking you to take us back to the day that you and Viola met on set.

[B]

Oh, wow. That was incredible. It was 1999. It was city of Angels. I was playing an anesthesiologist. She was nurse Lynette Peeler, and I was passing blood to her. And I was dating a girl at the time that I wasn't so happy with. And then. So I said, wow, this lady looks. She could be somebody nice I could maybe give my card to. So at the end of the day, I gave her my card and I had my shirt on. The story is, Viola said if my shirt had been off, she would have never called me. But I had my shirt on and I gave her my card, and I said, hey, if you ever want to hang out, whatever, whatever, give me a call. Well, she did. A month later, she called me. I had literally forgot about it, but I hadn't forgot about her. So when I heard her voice, I went, hey. And then she invited me to a cast thing for the main cast because I was recurring on the show. And we went out on our first date almost 27 years ago, and here we are, 23 years married, coming up this summer, 27 years this October. So it's been beautiful. But that's how it started.

[A]

Oh, I love that story. And I love that you guys met. Just your typical way, just passing blood to each other.

[B]

Yeah, just passing the regular stuff. Just passing blood, you know? Know. And she kind of fit in those. You know, she fit in those things pretty good. And I was like, okay, let me give this girl, my card.

[A]

I mean, what's so sweet about hearing the two of you talk about each other is you both met each other when you were coming up.

[B]

Yeah, absolutely.

[A]

What's it like to be, you know, two young actors working hard to make ends meet and, you know, being in love?

[B]

Listen, it's tough. Listen, when I met Viola, she was scared to tell me she had bad credit. I said, hey, baby, it's okay. I got good credit, you know, but it's one of those tough things. But you know, Amy, it's about supporting one another. You support one, the other one supports the other equally. And that's what we did. We just went about kind of loving on each other and being happy for one another with whatever dropped, whatever happened. And so just so happened that Viola's career just really started to take off. And it's been a beautiful thing and I'm glad to be a part of it. People say, how do you handle it?

[A]

How do you do what you do?

[B]

Whatever I said, because I know who I am. For a man, it starts with you knowing who you are. I don't care how powerful your woman is or what she's doing. If your woman knows that you can handle yourself and that you know who you are, then she's going to go, wow, hey, my guy's good. And so that's the way Viola and I have roles. So it's about me supporting her and vice versa. So it's just been easy for us.

[A]

Oh, Julius. Everyone listening right now is just going,

[C]

Julius,

[A]

he's gonna play that on a loop.

[B]

Thank you. And it is the truth.

[A]

But you're right, but you don't know who you are.

[B]

You do.

[A]

You're right.

[B]

Especially in our business because it can be so competitive, even though we're not competing against each other. I'm a man, you're a woman. But we're not competing against each other. But we're in the same business. And sometimes that intersection, when one is elevating and the other is kind of like not. It can create a lot of different kind of weird kind of energy and things in a relationship. And so listen, what? This is what we do. It's not who we are. This acting thing and all this what we do, it's not who we are. So we figured that out early on. And so it's just been always easy because it's always been in support of one another.

[A]

Well, it's a beautiful thing because you're reminding me of just the word self in the phrase self esteem. It really Is your own work to do always, Amy.

[B]

I can say that I Met Viola almost 27 years ago. She's the same woman I met when I met her all those years ago. Hadn't changed a bit. But everything that's happened to her, she's still the same Viola. And I think that's what makes people just so drawn to Viola because she's so real and so authentic.

[A]

Can we talk about the Woman King? Because congratulations on that.

[B]

Thank you so much. What a. Yeah.

[A]

What was that like, making that together?

[B]

It was a great journey. It was great to be able to do a movie like that because a movie like that hadn't been done in Hollywood ever.

[A]

That's right.

[B]

And so be able to do a movie like that and have it come out so beautiful, so accepted by the audiences on a global scale. It meant a whole, whole lot to Viola and myself. And so we just went all in. Despite the challenges, despite not necessarily having enough money to make it, but still saying, you know what, be damned, we just going to go make it anyway because we know it's going to have a cultural impact and it's going to be long lasting. And as it turned out, you know, afi, I chose it that year to be one of the great films that was made that year. And so we're just so proud to have done that together and battling it out, you know, just battling it out. Fight even in what you want. You know, as hard as it is, Amy, you just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other. If you want something, you have to go for it. And that's what Viola and I continually. With our team, because I'm a big team.

[A]

Well, I was going to say you're a football. Ex football player.

[B]

I am an ex football player.

[A]

Did you ever coach? I never coached because you have a coach vibe.

[B]

But I was, you know, I wanted to act. I was kind of like. I looked at, you know, my idols back in the day when I was thinking about acting and playing football, you know, it was, it was Jim Brown, Bernie Casey, Fred Williamson, some of the old school guys from way back in the day. When I was saying, shit, they could do it, I could do it. So, you know, and so that was kind of a thing. And. But I always loved the arts. I always loved. It started with poetry and then, you

[A]

know, obviously, well, you have, you have Julius, you have, you have a real coach vibe and you do something that I absolutely love, which is every other sentence you say my name and boy, does it work. Every time you say my Name. I'm like, yes. Hey, Amy, he's talking to me. I love it so much. Okay. I'm sure you've. You've got a sense now of what Viola likes to be asked and what she, like, is asked constantly about and doesn't want to answer anymore. Like, you know, there's always these questions that are like, you know, people think they're asking for the first time, or topics that. Is there anything you would. If you don't mind, helping me out to make sure I don't get into an area or a question that she's like, oh, this again.

[B]

Well, you know, I think it would be fun to ask her some questions about some of the funny moments that we had together. This one is. Ask her the origin of Zuni.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Ask her. Say, Viola, what's this whole thing about Zuni? What is that thing? Well, let me just tell you a little bit. It's. It's a. It's a animated Muppet cartoon that I grew up with. And the show was called Fireball XL5. And Zuni was one of the endearing characters, and they were going on space exploration. It was about that. And I was a kid, I loved that show. And so that's a pet name I gave Viola. I call her Zuni. And the reason I do, because I love Zuni so much and I love Viola. So that is so endearing to me. So when I'm calling her Zuni, it's not because of what Zuni looks like. It's because I love the hell out of Zuni.

[A]

Okay. But I'm gonna have to Google Zuni and see what Zuni.

[B]

You gotta Google them real quick, and you'll see Fireball XL5, and you'll see Zuni. But I love Zuni, So ask her about Zuni.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

Other thing is, ask her about our first theatrical experience, Shadow of a Gunman. Just say you and Julius went to a place. This Shadow of a Gunman thing, what is that Viola? Give us. Let us know. She'll tell you. It's kind of a funny story, you know, the regular questions about the business and all that stuff. We can always talk about projects and stuff like that. And she's great to talk about that stuff, but she. She oftentimes doesn't like to talk about the mundane stuff that you have to answer a thousand times. But it always surprises me. She's always able to answer this stuff as if it was new. I'm like, going, how the hell you do that, Viola? You know? Yeah. I'm like, why Are you doing that? Okay, well, she was going to. People think I can pull a rabbit out of my ass and I'm going. Well, you kind of can.

[A]

Well, Julius, I know you guys, you're the best couple in the world. And we're not going to be able to interview any other spouse after this because you set such a high bar.

[C]

Well,

[A]

and not like it's a competition, but you've won a gold medal in relationships.

[B]

Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure being with you this morning.

[A]

Same love talking to you. Thank you so much for your time and it's such a pleasure. Thanks again.

[B]

You too.

[A]

Okay, take care.

[C]

Bye.

[A]

All right, listen up. Ralph's King supers, Harris Teeter, Food for Less, Kroger and More are now on Uber Eats. And you get 40 off your order of $30 or more. Maybe you're trying a new recipe and need some last minute ingredients. Or maybe the kids made a mess and you're lower on cleaning supplies than you thought. Whatever you need, you can get it delivered in as little as 25 minutes. So order now on UberEats and get 40 off your order of $30 or code KROGER2026 plus Uber One members get $0 delivery fees. Orders of $30 or more save up to $25. Ends May 31, 2026. See app for details. Viola Davis is here. I'm so, so happy that you're here.

[C]

I'm happy to be here. I've been like, not working for the longest time.

[A]

Congrats.

[C]

So I feel like it's. I feel like I'm coming out of hibernation and I'm like, holy shit. This is what I do.

[A]

Well, I gotta tell you, we gotta start by saying you were the first EGOT we've had and probably the last. I mean, let's get real. I mean, that was.

[C]

There's not a lot of us.

[A]

No, there's like 18, 19.

[C]

I have to tell you that it wasn't until I won the Oscar for fences and someone said, you're one step away from an egot. I never thought of it before. I didn't think about. It wasn't like that sort of thing for me.

[A]

That's so cool. I mean, it just. It is again, not something anyone's like, thinking about when they're starting out, but just.

[C]

It's cool.

[A]

It's cool.

[C]

It is. It's cool.

[A]

It's cool.

[C]

It's not gonna be on my gravestone, Amy, but it's cool.

[A]

It is so cool on my Gravestone. It's gonna be that I interviewed you, you that winner. And also, before we get started, I just gotta say the Timmy, Timothy, Timothy Chalamet shout out was so cool.

[C]

Oh, and my daughter was. That was it for her. She's 15. That was it. Timothee Chalamet, Mama.

[A]

I mean, good company to be in. And of course we all agreed with him, but you spoke about it. And I love what you said about how you loved his speech. What did you love about it? Cause I did too, like the essence of what he was saying in that speech.

[C]

Well, what I loved about the speech is he has a spirit of excellence. You know, some people, I always negotiate, Amy. So if you feel like I take a long pause, I'm just negotiating what I'm about to say. So I don't step on toes and I don't work ever again in the industry. But some people don't have the spirit of excellence. They have the spirit of mistaking their presence for the event, for mediocrity, for just beauty. But it's great that he had the spirit of excellence without putting me in it at all. I hear what. I'm not saying that, but I love that with young actors.

[A]

Me too. And also I love when people are, I guess, openly ambitious and in real time saying, I really want to try to get the best out of myself and others. Like when they say it.

[C]

Absolutely.

[A]

I love that.

[C]

Passion too, is different than ego.

[A]

Yeah, that's right.

[C]

And I saw the ambition in him and he happens to be incredibly talented.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

So what? Like, I like young people. Listen, just like I love bad kids, I love a bad kid. Like a two year old bad kid. Someone who comes, you know. I had a little bad kid at my wedding. My first wedding, I had three ceremonies, Amy. But my first wedding I had a little bad kid who stuck his whole finger in my cake. I thought it was the best thing in the world. So I love a bad kid, but I also love young people who have an attitude. I do. Listen, the world is gonna get at you. It's gonna kick your ass, just leave you in the dumpster. So it's really great when you go out in the world and you have the chutzpah you that self possession, right?

[A]

Yes.

[C]

That's what I want with my kid. I was so, so much of a good girl, you know, with shitty boyfriends who made me feel like shit and I was just still like worshiping at their feet. So, yeah, I like, like, I like attitude.

[A]

Do you think that's an east Coast Thing because we're both East Coast. I grew up in Boston. You're Rhode Island. You weren't born there, but you spent most of your time in Rhode Island.

[C]

Okay, Boston.

[A]

Yeah. And what's the difference between Boston and Rhode Island?

[C]

Nothing. You still say Florida. You know, you parked the car and your father. And your father and your mother. By all. Oh, my God, I eat grinders and cabinets.

[A]

Okay, that's true.

[C]

You drink from the bubbler.

[A]

Oh, yeah. Bubbler. Yes.

[C]

The first time I said bubbler was at California, which is a water fountain anywhere else. And I said, you know where the bubbler is? And Guy, literally, he stood there for the longest time. He was like, what the fuck are you talking about?

[A]

Totally.

[C]

And he finally said, the water fountain. I was like, water fountain with the statues.

[A]

Well, did you say pocketbook instead of purse?

[C]

Oh, no, Pocketbook all the way. Pocketbook. And wicked good.

[A]

Wicked. Everything is wicked good. I mean, my parents, they would go into a bar, they'd be like, can we have a beer? And they'd be like, oh, you're from Boston. And they'd be like, how do you know? Well, just one word. There's a part of growing up on the east coast that gives you a directness that I wouldn't want to trade. I like that about people.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

But the other side of that coin can be like a roughness. Like a. Just a toughness and roughness.

[C]

And, you know, Amy, I'm black, so comes with a different set of rules of roughness.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

You know, and so, yeah, you know, I came from plain spoken people.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

You know, I always say it's like. It's like I'm negotiating.

[A]

Oh, my God, I love the sound of your negotiation. We should put some music over it when you're thinking on what to say.

[C]

Yeah, Tupac. You could put Tupac music. But I just remember visiting someone at one point, and I took a bus, and I got off the bus, and I told my friend, well, make sure the person who's coming to pick me up, they know who I am. Okay. I waited there, Amy, 30 minutes, maybe longer, waiting for the person to pick me up. Finally, I find them. I go to my friend and I said, why couldn't they find me? And he said, well, I described you. I said, well, how did you describe me? Oh, I just said you were cute and you had long hair. Amy, I'm black with long braids. I said, did you tell him I was black? I was the only black girl on the bus. He was like, oh, I didn't feel like I could save that, you know? But the thing with what you're talking about, plain spoken thing about black people, they call it as it is.

[A]

That's right.

[C]

You know that black girl who come out and she got the tattoo on her left titty and she got one tooth coming out of her mouth? It's that girl.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

So it's that sort of plain spokenness I grew up with with my mom and dad. They were that plain spoken.

[A]

Well, you talk. I mean, you've spoken beautifully about your childhood growing up and the difficulties in it and the way that you've liked, been processing it in real time as an adult now. But I think. And I don't know if this is the same for you. As I get older, I start trying to look at my origin, the place of origin, and figure out what gifts it gave me and what pain it gave me at the same time. Right. And there is this something about growing up in the East Coast, I don't know. That sticks with you. And I know this sounds silly, but, like, the accent that we just did, like, the accent sticks around. I always say, like, when I'm angry or really excited, my accent comes out sometimes.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Does your accent.

[C]

My accent comes out, too, even when I'm acting.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Especially in an emotional scene. And it just surprises me. It'll jump out at me. And, you know, of course, I went to a school in New York that kills your accent. You'll get thrown out if you still have an accent at Juilliard by your fourth year. And by my second year, they warned me and said, you cannot come back to the school until you fix up whatever the hell this is going on. And so I remember, like, every single day for two hours practicing how to say father instead of father.

[A]

Father.

[C]

And you know, at Juilliard, when you speak, too, when you're walking around, they put a pencil in your mouth during rehearsal. They put a pencil in your mouth to see where your tongue is when you're articulating your sentences. So I was traumatized into just catapulting that, not realizing that's a beautiful thing.

[A]

Yeah. Have you ever gotten to play anyone with a, you know, with a Rhode island accent or Boston accent and, like, let it rip?

[C]

No, Amy, nobody's writing a black girl from Rhode island roles.

[A]

Well, maybe we do a road trip.

[C]

Maybe I need to write it.

[A]

Maybe you need to. I mean. I mean, you're talking about going to Juilliard and. And you've talked a lot about it and your training there and, like, what you took from it and before you got there, who told you or when did you have that feeling of, I want to be an actor? The reason why I asked, I'm the daughter of school teachers. No one I knew was an actor. I didn't know any actors I didn't like. Of course, I knew famous people in movies and tv, but I didn't know that would be a job of mine. But I was in school plays, and people would come up and say, you were good.

[C]

Yeah, exactly.

[A]

You know, like, you hung in there

[C]

and it surprises you, right?

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

But for me, it's gradual, so it's hard to pinpoint one person in one moment. But I swear to you, the more I think about it, I have to pinpoint the moment that we won the skit contest at Jenks park when I was eight years old, Amy. That was it.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Because I was so shy, you know, and brutally shy, like, to the point where I couldn't speak in public. And so we did the skit, you know, and I played the oo wee kid from that's My Mama. That's Ted Lang. I don't know if you remember that show. I don't want to age you.

[A]

No, what show?

[C]

It's called that's My Mama.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

And he was a Oo Wee Kid. He was the gossipy.

[A]

Okay, okay.

[C]

He would come in and go, oo wee. Ooh, I got it. I got it. I'm here to report it. So I was a ooey kid. My sister Dolores was. What's his name? From let's Make a Deal. Montel.

[A]

Oh, Monty Hall.

[C]

Monty Hall. She was in Monty Hall. My sister Anita was Esther. Aunt Esther from Sanford and Son. And my sister Diane was Fred Sanford.

[A]

Oh, my God.

[C]

I think I have it in my book. But we created a game show, sort of reality show, where we had to come on and tell. Tell a story of how you saved a life. And whoever had the best story won a million dollars.

[A]

What are you in the birth order of the sisters next to the youngest?

[C]

I have one younger sister who was my baby.

[A]

Yeah. So, wow. So three. So four girls in the same family rehearsing, like, doing skits, doing. Covering.

[C]

Having rewrites. Yeah, having rewrites. We had a little wardrobe budget of $2.50. We go to Salvation Arm, you know, or Raid my mom's closet. The whole thing was we did the skit contest because we were like these fucking people in this town. Fuck her. Fuck her. I mean, people who, like, were bullies, you know, and we were like, we're gonna stick it to them. We're gonna win. The confidence.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Once again, the self possession and just being. And everyone in Central Falls was there. People were sitting on rocks, you know, the newspaper was there, Amy. And we won.

[A]

Damn, that must have been so exciting, Viola. I mean, it's gonna be hard for me to not talk about how great you are this whole time. To me, that story feels like when an athlete realizes, like, oh, I'm naturally good at hitting a baseball or something, you know, you are so good at what you do.

[C]

Well, I appreciate that.

[A]

And the naturalness of what you do, combined with your determination and skill, it's just so. I mean, I wish I could have a time machine and go back to that day and see you performing, because I can only imagine that people pointed at you and said, wow.

[C]

Well, I don't know if anyone pointed at me and said, wow, but I pointed at myself and said, wow.

[A]

And how do you go from there to Juilliard? How do you. You know what? We'll never know.

[C]

You never know.

[A]

But what do you audition with to get into Juilliard?

[C]

I auditioned with Celie from Color Purple. Oh, God. That was my dramatic. And then I auditioned with a sort of comedy piece from. God damn it, I'm forgetting. Oh, boy. But it was sort of French comedy.

[A]

Like farce. Like a farce kind of thing.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

I mean, when you were doing Shakespeare, what do you have a way to memorize Shakespeare? Or, like, how do you like to memorize?

[C]

It's a process, so you have to figure out who you are, what you live for. All that other stuff that nobody ever wants to hear about, by the way. It's so boring. It really is. It's.

[A]

I know what you mean. But what is cool about it is I think that the skill involved with the, you know, the hard work, which is the theme, I would say, of looking at your body of work and your life, is that you just have never shied away from hard work. You've never run away from it.

[C]

Thank you.

[A]

And memorizing is really hard.

[C]

Memorizing is. You know what? Memorizing is the least difficult part of acting.

[A]

Ooh. I think I. These days. These days, my whole life, it's so hard. I was just like, you know, when

[C]

you have another actor looking in your face and they're waiting for the line, now I'm big with this. And then you know that someone has dropped. I did this with Meryl Streep, you know, in Doubt. She had a line. I had a line, or whatever. And then nothing. I'm looking in her face. Nothing. She's saying nothing. I'm saying nothing. It's obviously, someone dropped the line. And then I realized she's the one who dropped the line.

[A]

Oh, my God. Thank God.

[C]

Mellow Fingers dropped the line. And so then we did it three, three more times. That scene, she kept dropping the line. And in my brain I was like, say the fucking line.

[A]

Of course.

[C]

But I can't tell Meryl Streep, you forgot the line. You keep forgetting the line. And finally, we did it. And she was like, why does something feel off? And I said, because you keep forgetting the line. You forgot the line, Meryl.

[A]

And she's like, I'm not perfect.

[C]

And then she knows. She just said, well, why didn't you say something?

[A]

And you did say something.

[C]

I did.

[A]

But.

[C]

But the.

[A]

The. The. The Shakespeare itself feels just like. You really gotta. I guess your point? You gotta just keep living in it and living in it.

[C]

Well, here's the hardest thing about Shakespeare, too.

[A]

Please.

[C]

What the hell are you saying?

[A]

What the fuck are you saying?

[C]

What are you saying? And also the iambic. And also. Boy, actors are gonna kill me for this. But I went to Juilliard, and you don't want it to be boring.

[A]

Listen, they're not gonna kill you for that. Here's the thing about Shakespeare. All it is is people acting it and listening to it and going like this.

[C]

Mm.

[A]

And I'm like, you don't know what you're talking about. And we don't know what you're saying.

[C]

Well, here's the thing, too. And if you don't know what they're saying, then they're not doing it correctly.

[A]

Exactly.

[C]

But you can't say, but it's boring.

[B]

I know.

[C]

At Juilliard, I would fall asleep a lot. Oh, my God. I have a friend who. It would piss her off. As soon as I was in the class, we'd have the greatest actors, greatest Shakespearean actors in the world come to the school. Within five minutes, I would be dead sleep. I would be knocked out with my lip hitting my lap. I mean, I would be knocked out. And to this day, she was like, I can't even believe you would do that. I can't believe you would do that. And I said, did you ever. Did it ever occur to you that it just didn't excite me? But that's the thing with Shakespeare. You just don't want it to be boring. Because at the end of the day. Here's the thing. It's just about people can be kings and kings.

[A]

I mean, it's a soap opera most of the time, those plays. But I mean, thank you for saying that, because the thing about, like, art in general is if you don't figure out how to find a way in, sometimes you feel really strange when everybody else is in there and you're like, what is it? How come I can't connect?

[C]

Yeah. But, Amy, let me tell you something. We going down the road of talking by acting like it's real deep. People don't see it. I see it as deep. You see it as deep. Most people do not see it as deep because once again, it's about mistaking your presence for the event. It's about.

[A]

That's right.

[C]

I mean, my big thing are love scenes. I can't stand love scenes. I can't stand watching them. I can't stand doing them. I'm like, ooh, I finally said how to get away with Murder. I'm not doing any more love scenes anymore. I mean, that's it. You write a love scene. I'm not doing it unless you give me a boyfriend who has a stomach.

[A]

Wait, say more.

[C]

A big gut.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And you know why?

[A]

Why?

[C]

Because you'll actually write the scene. It won't be about taking off the shirt and the six pack abs.

[A]

That's right.

[C]

I mean, I'm watching. I did a scene with Billy Brown. Who? I love Billy Brown. Love everyone. And it's tv.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

So Annalise Keating is in bed. Annalise Keating is sort of sleeps with a lot of people, men, women, which cannot be any opposite for me. I mean, I'm like, oh, my God. So. And I'm in the bed, I'm laying down and everything. And then he gets up with his underwear. And they. I mean, they literally just taking his underwear down, putting his makeup on, and he's got his abs. And then they want him to walk into the bathroom and come out with, you know, one of those scrub brushes and slap it on his hand as if he's slapping my ass. So he's like, slap, slap, slap. As we're saying the dialogue. I'm in the scene, Amy, And I'm like, you gotta cut. You gotta cut. Please cut.

[A]

That's my nightmare. That's a nightmare.

[C]

It's a frigging nightmare.

[A]

That's a nightmare.

[C]

So I said, if you write someone with a gut, maybe we won't be in bed. Maybe it'll be about everything else. And then when we finally kiss, it's like. Like something that's Organically happening. But right now, for me, a lot of love scenes. It's like, that's the time to go to the bathroom. If you want to pick up, go to the bathroom. You come back, you haven't missed anything. Oh, my God.

[A]

I feel you. I feel you. The couple. I've not done many, but the couple times it's been on the call sheet, I'm like, oh, no, this is my. This is the worst day. And any, by the way, anybody that's like, ooh, I got a love scene today. Red flag.

[C]

I had to do a love scene with Tom Verica, who cannot be more lovely. How to get away with murder. First love scene. Well, actually, my first love scene was with Billy Brown in the. And it got cut. And I'm so happy it got cut because we were having sex on my car in Philadelphia, and it was 12 degrees. I was terrified. First love scene in my life. But the second love scene. Tom Verica, who plays my husband, Hanukkah, with murder. So we're getting prepared for the love scene in the trailer, and the makeup artists are saying, so do you want anything to cover? I mean, I have stretch marks. Yeah. I mean, I got stretch marks everywhere. I got stretch marks on my ass. I got stretch marks on my arms. I got stretch marks everywhere. I'm just gonna say it.

[A]

We all do.

[C]

And so I'm like, yeah, I want makeup. I want makeup on my arms. I want makeup on my ass. And it's like, I got makeup on my ankles. Okay, he's getting makeup on. I mean, we're just basically spraying ourselves with makeup, Both of us terrified. Okay. And then finally, I had the big aha moment. I said, tom, this is what we're going to do. We gonna hold it up for the regular people.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

We're gonna hold it up for the people out there who, you know, may have a little bit of something sticking out there or whatever. And there was makeup all over the sheets, makeup all over the bed, you know? You know, thank God my wig didn't come off, you know, and that was.

[A]

And there's nothing sexy about it. Nothing. When you do a love scene, in my opinion, there's nothing sexy about it.

[C]

It's just.

[A]

It's hard, your search for the realness in things, like the way you're looking for the truth in things, in your own life and in your work. It dovetails so beautifully with August Wilson. Can you talk about how you felt about doing his work and, like, how important he is to you as a writer?

[C]

Well, he's important because he writes about black people. It's our cadences. It's my mom, my dad, my father. It's how we talked, you know, how I listened to them, how I talked, you know, and that's the beauty of it, because, you know, otherwise, listen, I went to Juilliard. We were doing George Bernard Shaw, Strindberg, you know, Chekhov, who I love, you know, Shakespeare. So I did Blanche dubois. I mean, it was just a scene, but I have to do. If you've ever read Blanche dubois, I could not be any different than Blanche dubois. She's extremely fragile, you know, fading, beauty queen, you know, all of those things. So to see and to hear me, you know, take my deep voice and try to whittle it down and sound like a white southern woman and doing all that, it was like, oh my, I can't do this. I mean, I shouldn't say I can't do it. I can do it, I can transform, I could do all of that. But then, you know, people in the audience have got it. You know, let me ignore the fact that this is a deep voice black woman who is self possessed and very grounded and is not. But with August Wilson, I don't have to do any of that. I still have to do the work. But I could do a work in a way that invites me in, you know, and that's the beauty of, that's the beauty of August Wilson.

[A]

And you're nominated for a Tony three years after you get out of school for that. I mean, do you remember when you found out you were nominated? That must have been an incredible feeling.

[C]

I found out I was nominated. You know, back in the day, back in the day when you had those answering machines that you had to call, you had to call the answering machine. I would call every single day to see if I had an audition. So I called and my agent at the time said, viola, you got a Tony nomination. Oh my God. I ran to my parents house, they don't know what a Tony Award is. And my little nieces and nephews, they don't know what the hell a Tony Award is. I ran in the house, I said, you guys, my little nieces and nephews, they were in their diapers running around acting bad. Like I love bad kids. I ran in the house and I said, you guys, I got a Tony nomination. And they went, ah. They started throwing themselves on the floor. They didn't know what the hell the Tony nomination was. But we all just jumped and I mean, come on.

[A]

Yeah, amazing.

[C]

Come on.

[A]

This episode is brought to you by Visible Folks Whether you're swiping for the one or already found them, there's one thing nobody wants this season that's getting catfished. And it's not just dating profiles that are putting you at risk. It's also big wireless carriers. You know the type. Looks great at first, promises a low price, but once you're locked in, surprise fees and an expensive bill that isn't what you were expecting. Your knight in shining armor Visible Wireless. It's one line wireless with unlimited data and hotspot for just $25 a month, taxes and fees included. Now that's a green flag. The best part? Visible is all digital, so you can switch as fast as you can swipe. Don't fall for the trap of getting catfished by Wireless. Visit visible.com to learn more and start loving your wireless carrier. Terms apply. See visible.com for plan features and network management details. This episode is brought to you by TaxAct. Look, nobody wakes up excited to do taxes. Luckily, TaxAct makes tax season easy, walking you through every step of the way. Get tips along the way. Add expert assist to talk to Tax act experts or let our experts do your taxes for you. With Expert full service, TaxAct helps you find the deductions and credits you deserve so you can get them over with. Visit taxact.com to learn more. Conditions apply. See taxact.com for details. This episode is brought to you by Subaru. For me, going the extra mile means taking the long way home. If you're going to grab snacks and the 10 minute trip turns into a two hour journey, suddenly you're on a new street. Then your ice cream is melted in the back and you know we've solved the meaning of life. But luckily, in my Subaru Hybrid, that's right, I have one and I love it. That extra mile is built right in with longer range and better fuel efficiency than ever before. The Subaru Forester Hybrid and the Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid. Great cards. I have them both. Love goes the extra mile. Visit subaru.com hybrid to learn more. More this episode is brought to you by ebay. On ebay, every find has a story. Like if you're looking for a vintage band tee. Not just a tee, the band tee. You wore it everywhere until your ex stole it. Now you're on ebay. There it is. Same tea from the same tour. The things you love have a way of finding their way back to you. Especially on ebay. Shop ebay for millions of finds, each with a story. Ebay thanks People love. You were a very accomplished working actor on a lot of shows before a kind of America at large knew your name. You had a really substantial body of work. Do you feel like that allowed you. You know, it was just like that 10,000 hours idea that you worked really hard and often and kind of figured out. You worked in tv, you worked in film, you worked on stage. You, like, got to feel confident in your skill.

[C]

Yes, but once again, that's the task.

[A]

Yeah, but it's not always everyone's room.

[C]

No, I understand, and I understand that. And therein lies the problem with the business that anyone feels like they can do it, you know, but there was never a time when I was at the Guthrie Theater or working in Newton, Massachusetts. I worked in Newton, Massachusetts. Every. I've worked everywhere. I've worked with everyone. Huntington Theater, act, Mark Taper Forum, Goodman Theater. I thought I'd already made it. Yeah, I did.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

You know, making your 650 a week, and then you did your 10 weeks, and then you qualified for unemployment. So you got your unemployment. And sure, you call in that unemployment every Sunday. Got that 350. I think it went up to $390 a week. Week. I thought I'd already made it because I could say that I am an actor. But you do have to put in those hours in order to have some level of a process. Because here's what I think. Whenever I do a job. This is my thing with actors. It's a little bit of my pet peeve. A little bit is this. If you have a criticism for a writer, you never have it for another actor. You don't criticize them. That's like a. No, no. Okay. I don't care if it's a day player. You don't tell anyone how to act. That's the director's job. But if you have a criticism of the work, if you say, you know, this scene is not working, you have to tell them why and you have to know how to fix it. I will say, once again, I'm negotiating. I would say 98% of the time, people don't know how to fix it.

[A]

Yeah, that's such a great point. Because I've often said that actors should spend a day being a writer getting notes from actors. Absolutely. Because the way that people give writers feedback is often appalling. It's like, this isn't. And not just actors, anybody. But the way writers receive feedback is dismissive. It's insulting. They don't have a fix. Like, to your point, something they've Worked really, really hard on. They hand it over, and people just kind of, like, open it up and barely pay attention to it. They barely read it. They don't know the words. They don't. They don't. They're, like, challenging stuff before it's even tried out. And then, conversely, I always say to writers, now put on someone else's clothes.

[C]

That's right.

[A]

Go over there and scramble an egg while you remember two pages of dialogue while everyone you know is on the other side of the room drinking coffee, looking at you. And then we're even.

[C]

Yeah, absolutely. Whenever you have to fix a script, sometimes it's really not that deep to fix something. It could be a simple choice, but what happens is the filter that goes through is okay. Is it gonna get more viewers? Are people gonna wanna see. Is it gonna turn on the 18 to 34 who come see the movie? That's a big one, Amy.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[C]

I mean, the boys.

[A]

The boy. And also will men. Yeah, Will men care? Will men care about this project? And it's like, yeah, that was the woman king. Oh, yeah. I bet there was a lot of discussion about, like, we want to make sure our men show up. And it's like, do we? Do we want to make sure men show up? Like, these days? Me too. I've been like, maybe they don't come to this one.

[C]

Exactly.

[A]

How about we just make one? We just make one for us. Just one.

[C]

I'm playing a goji warrior. I've just chopped off five men's heads in the first two minutes. And maybe it's just not for them. I mean, it's. It's like. It's like a lot of the. The notes were, you know, less dirt and more lipstick. Are you freaking kidding me? Wild. Are you kidding me? Wild. I'm playing an agoge warrior, and I'm thinking about lipstick and eyelash extensions.

[A]

That film. You are so badass in that film. That film is so beautiful. I loved it. You and your husband produced it together, generated it, made it for yourself. Such an example of, like, taking the currency that you had and using it and making that project. And the thing I wanted to ask you about Woman King, the woman king is. And for people that don't know, it's, you know, based on a real story. For people that don't know about. Could you explain what it was based.

[C]

It's based on the Agoge tribe warriors in Dahomey in Benin, West Africa, in, like, 1854. And they were all female army unit that would go out and fight Neighboring tribes and, you know, Yoruba tribes. Now, you know, the controversy is. There was a lot of controversy, you know, involved with the Agojo warriors because they would have slaves. Okay. I think ultimately that is what maybe people had problems with. And the other problem is, you know, it was an all black cast, mostly female cast, mostly, without getting into it, because there will never be enough time in the world. Dark skinned females who have muscles and who are taking men down. I mean, I trained for five hours a day and I was the oldest mother freaking warrior in the movie. So we trained five hours a day for months hand to hand combat. I have to tell you though, with that movie, without getting too much into it, because there's a lot about that movie.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

That was like very important to me. Yeah. I didn't think it was a big deal for women to be warriors. Right. I didn't think, think that it was a big deal to have a title like the woman king. Because first of all, there's a lot of kings who are women. In Africa, they actually called kings. I didn't know that that was going to be a controversy until we did it. I thought, this is badass. I mean, I would take my toy machete home to practice with my husband. I mean, not around my husband, because he would say, oh, V, this is a lot. But. But I just didn't know it was a big deal until we started shooting it. And there was, you know, can we make your curls looser and more pretty? Could we do eyelash extensions? Maybe a different title? You know, this whole sort of watering down.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

This idea of like, just don't forget to stay soft.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Like, while you're the hardest warrior ever, don't forget to be a little bit cute and soft because God forbid you just step into your full power.

[C]

Absolutely. And God forbid that you don't turn me on.

[A]

That's right.

[C]

That you don't look sexy.

[A]

That's right.

[C]

And you know, it sort of leads into the whole thing of the value of beauty, you know.

[A]

That's right.

[C]

I mean, I'm definitely like at 60 years old, I feel fabulous because I am one of those women. I got that done and over with very, very early in life. You know, I feel for the beautiful women who were younger and now they're older and they walk in the room and no one's looking at them. Yeah.

[A]

That's tough. When your beauty is your number one currency because it goes away fast.

[C]

Exactly.

[A]

It's really fickle. But I will say, and you spoke about this when you Were doing the woman king. Like, the way in which you created this new relationship to your body in your 50s. I think a lot of women. I know, a lot of women I know. I speak for myself. You start to really take. You really kind of look and you say, okay, this is my one body. I really. You know, the. The ways in which I got to kind of put it in the. On the back burner in my 20s and 30s. I really have to pay attention to it now. And I've joked on here, like, we gotta eat 85 grams of protein and we have to lift weights. But you did you.

[C]

What.

[A]

What did you learn about yourself when you were training five hours a day?

[C]

And you know what, Amy? It was the first time I could walk into a room with that. It was a leather sort of shirt I had on, armor that I had on, and so my stomach was exposed. It was the first time I can walk on the field and in a room and totally be in my body. You know, there is something about the female body, what you're sort of conditioned to believe about it, that it's got to be beautiful, right? Yeah. So it's got to be thin and beautiful. And the why and the how it has to be beautiful is always tied to male desirability.

[A]

That's right.

[C]

It's never tied to being capable.

[A]

It's tied to a shrinking.

[C]

Yeah, exactly. Shrinking and not being capable, not being strong, not being. You know, it's never ours.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And so even in the practicing, I was gonna lie a little bit. I was gonna lie a little bit.

[A]

Well, I hope it was a little tiring. Like, I hope you were dangerous.

[C]

This is what the lie was.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

This is what the lie was, Amy. Cause. Okay.

[A]

Cue music for negotiating.

[C]

Q. Q. You know, hit him up by. I was gonna say, you know, if, you know, just to. In the practicing. Cause we would do an hour of weightlifting, 30 minutes of running on the treadmill at 10.0.

[A]

Oh, no, I've done 10.0. That is a disaster.

[C]

And it was a disaster.

[A]

30 minutes straight of 10.0. Like, was it sprints or.

[C]

Sprints?

[A]

God damn it.

[C]

And then three and a half hours. I mean, by the end, I mean. And you saw all these young girls, they'd have a little sweat on their bodies. I would swe about three, four shirts a day. So I would go to Choreo for three and a half hours. And you're taking down eight, seven dudes at the same time. Okay, eight, seven dudes. What I was gonna say is, you know, it Was. It was so great, because then I could really tap into the part of me that I never tapped into before. That's bullshit. I was always that girl that wanted to kick someone's ass. Yeah. And probably did a couple of times, but. But it gave me permission to do it.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

And there was one guy. Huge. 6, 4, 2, 60. I mean, come on.

[A]

That's exciting.

[C]

And to make. And I felt like I could do it.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[C]

Now, whether I could do it or not in real life, who knows? But the feeling like I could.

[A]

You have stood toe to toe with such amazing actors. Denzel, you talked about Meryl. Merle, you worked with Chadwick. When you're in that zone with people that good, and you're like, what is it? I guess. I guess I'm like. I'm asking you, like, what's it like to be in the World Series?

[C]

Yes, exactly. And pissing your pants? Well, with Meryl, that was it.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, she's the best. She's so great and funny and funny

[C]

and cool and cool. Meryl, it's like, you could be that great and that cool.

[A]

Well, you're like that, too. That's why you guys are so good, because you're. You're so good that you don't have to be assholes because you know how good you are.

[C]

And you know those assholes out there.

[A]

Yes. Because they're not that good, you know, Or I should say they're not being led by insecurity. So you're. You and Meryl meet. Of course, you guys are friends and, like, respect each other because you're both so good.

[C]

But I followed her everywhere.

[A]

On set.

[C]

On set. I mean, to the point where it was like. You know when you say to yourself, okay, okay, tomorrow, I'm not gonna do that, Because I don't think it made her. It didn't make her feel comfortable. Cause at one point, she would never admit this. She probably doesn't remember it, but she was going to set, and I was trying to keep her from going to set because I was too excited. So I was like, so, how's it going? She was like, oh, good. So I'll see you later. She was going up the stairs. And then I was like, so. So it's going good, right? So the day was really good. And you could. You know when someone's trying to do something and you're stopping them from doing it and, oh, y. They don't feel like they don't want to be rude to you by going, shut the fuck up. I Got to get to set. So she was being really nice, and I said, okay, so I'll see you later, Right? So I work next week. So I work next week. And, you know, she was like, yeah, yeah. So that was the first day. And then I was like, I'm not going to do that tomorrow. So I'm not going to do that tomorrow. I went back tomorrow.

[A]

Oh, yeah. I mean.

[C]

And we're set. We're sitting there, and then I'm staring at her, and I'm really shy. She's not that shy. Sort of shy, but not that shy. So then I don't. Because I'm not good with small talk. And I go. Longest pause. And then I said, can I get you some tea? And she said. She said, no, baby, no. You don't have to get me any tea. And I was like, okay. So I couldn't think of anything else. I kept staring, staring. And you could tell, you know, when you stare, you could tell she was really trying to be gracious. And the only thing I could come up with is like, you got beautiful skin. I know. What. I actually said that to Meryl Streep. I love you. And then finally, my husband, who is like, vee, did you tell that woman that you love her work? You didn't tell that woman you love her work? I said, well, Julius, I. When I get to that damn set, I'm gonna tell her that I love her work, and I'm gonna tell her that she is your favorite actress. I said, don't say that. And Julius finally came to the set and he said, viola loves you so much, and you are so beautiful. Meryl, you are such a wonderful actress. She blushed. She was like, oh, Julius.

[A]

Well, I have met Julius, and Julius is something else. I mean, do you find. I mean, I know I. I find that sometimes in my life, people want me to be funny, and they're a little disappointed when I'm not quite bringing it. Do you feel, conversely, that sometimes people assume that you're gonna, like, exchange in something very deep and serious with them and you just wanna laugh all the time, Amy. Because I feel like what I'm learning about you is that you love to joke around and laugh half.

[C]

Oh. But, I mean, I can't really even joke around like I want because I'm.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Dirty with it.

[A]

Fantastic.

[C]

Why can't you. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you don't want to go down like that, Amy. No, you don't want to go down. I'm dirty with you.

[A]

Who did you love growing? Like, who were your.

[C]

Oh, the first one.

[A]

Who'd you love?

[C]

Mom's Mabel.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[C]

And she was dirty. Dirty.

[A]

So D

[C]

album over and over again. Flip Wilson. Yes. Over and over again.

[A]

Red Fox.

[C]

Red Fox. Over.

[A]

So dirty.

[C]

The dirtier the better.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

We can't go there.

[A]

Yeah. So funny.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

So you would play those records when you were.

[C]

Oh, I would, yeah. And you know why, too? Because they told stories and. Come on. The original dirty of the dirtiest of the funniest is Richard Pryor. Whenever I feel down, I play that live in concert over and over and over again. Oh, my God, that's just the best. And he talks about his kids. One part where he talks about his kids and how he doesn't know how to swim. And every time he gets into the pool, he's drowning. He's basically drowning. And his kids are like, he's so funny. And he's like, you motherfuckers, I'm drowning. You know, it's like, I love that, you know?

[A]

Okay, now, I want to get to your book before we finish because, you know, your relationship to writing is an interesting one to me. I mean, I'm sure you have. You know, we talked about it earlier, this idea of, like, when you're acting and you're writing and you're working with writers and what that kind of writing looks like. And then there's the different kind of version of writing when you're writing a book, when you're writing fiction, and when you're writing a memoir, which your memoir was a huge hit, you won the Grammy. That was your egot. Was your. When you did the recording of it, when you read your book on tape. And that book came out a while ago. And I'm curious, you know, when we write about our stories and then they go out into the world and everybody gets to kind of read them and process them. Have you ever heard from anyone from your past after that book came out?

[C]

I hear from various ones all the time. My fourth grade teacher in fourth grade, I have the story in my book that was. And I actually went back to my fourth grade class, too, the actual classroom. But my fourth grade, that was almost the height of my dysfunction, my dysfunctional life. But in the book, It still has a lot of shame for me. I would go to school, I would smell so bad. I mean, there are no words for it. Okay. And this teacher that I had that I loved, I loved her, Mrs. Cody. She sent pictures to my sister, who's a school. She was A school teacher in Central Falls. She sent all these pictures that she had saved of me.

[A]

Wow.

[C]

I have no pictures of my childhood. She saved these pictures and she saved some of my writings. Wow. And in one of the pictures, I was at a museum looking at this sculpture and all the kids were behind me who were in my class, but I was looking at the sculpture and my mouth was gapped open in awe. And I thought to myself, you captured something in me that I didn't know I had in me was already that when something was beautiful, when something was created that had that I would have no connection to otherwise. I saw it. That was in one of the pictures. And she told my sister that she never forgot me as a strange. And she was the one who actually told me that I needed to go to the nurse one day because I smelled so bad that my mom had to get some soap and hot water and you need to wash yourself because the odor is too much. She was a teacher who told me that and I loved her. That's why it hurts so bad.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

See once again the paradox, right?

[A]

Yeah, she's looking out for you.

[C]

But of feeling shamed, she's the one who I felt shame me. She didn't really shame me. Do you know what I'm saying? But that was a big one.

[A]

I mean, it feels like writing has been something that's been a big thing that you've wanted to do for a long time. And then you write. You're now co written a book with James Patterson. It's on my shelf.

[C]

It's right here. Judge Stone.

[A]

Judge Stone. Book is out.

[C]

Yep.

[A]

What is it about?

[C]

It is about a 13 year old girl named Nova who has an abortion who gets raped and has an abortion in Union Springs, Alabama. Alabama has the strictest abortion laws and the doctor who performs the abortion is now on trial for murder. So it is definitely To Kill a Mockingbird. It is just. It's pulsating. It's all of those things. But you know, even like To Kill a Mockingbird, which, you know, the courtroom was pulsating. You know, Tom Robinson, Mayella, you all, it was just, just heart stopping. Right. But the characters within it were just as memorable as the trial. That's what I feel about, you know, Judge Stone and James Patterson is like,

[A]

viola, you can do anything.

[C]

And, and no, I can't, I can't.

[A]

You know, tell us what you can't do.

[C]

Oh, I can't bake.

[A]

Okay. You know, you could probably learn.

[C]

I have a 15 year old at home. It's like, it's just me and you're probably out of the teen years.

[A]

No, I'm right in the middle of it. I got a 15 and a 17 year old.

[C]

Oh, I have a 15 year old. Yeah.

[A]

There's no easier way to feel uncool than when your kid, your teen kid looks at you like.

[C]

Like, what, I'm not cool?

[A]

No, but you're not supposed to be cool to your kid. If you're cool to your kid, that's weird.

[C]

I know. I think so. It's like, I'm not cool.

[A]

Nobody wants to be the parent that, like, hangs with their kids and, like, their kids are like, wow, your mom is so cool.

[C]

Like, I don't want to go to an escape room.

[A]

No, you don't have to. You don't have to.

[C]

I tried to. That's why I jumped out of a plane. I tell people I jumped out of a plane. What? Oahu, Hawaii. I jumped out of a plane to be cool for my daughter. I did.

[A]

Amy, what year was this? Just recently.

[C]

I was 57. 56. 56. 57. So I'm 60 now. Yeah.

[A]

What did you think of jump? What? What was it like? Did you. Was it awful? Seems awful. It seems. It truly seems, like, awful.

[C]

Have you ever jumped?

[A]

So obviously I'm not jumping out of a plane.

[C]

I jumped out of a plane because we had the most awesome nanny. When I say awesome, it's like everyone else's great nanny. And ours was like, God, okay, she jumped out of the plane. You know, you're jumping in tandem with someone who's talking.

[A]

Like, I was gonna say, you're jumping in tandem with someone you met, like, yesterday.

[C]

Yesterday. And he was like, so by all, you know, you're a great actress, so what do you like better, theater or film? And I want to say, shut the fuck up.

[A]

Like, focus, Zach. My favorite movie is the Parachute Working.

[C]

And look at. That's yummy, Mommy volcano right there. And that erupted and went, I don't fucking want to kill volcano. And then they roll the curtain up and they say, okay, so let's go.

[A]

That's cool. I mean, Viola, that's badass that you did that.

[C]

I will never do it again.

[B]

Although.

[C]

Although was a terrific experience. I told my daughter as I was falling down, because she said, mama, if you die, can I have your wigs and your money? So I'm falling down. So I'm falling down. I'm falling down. And I told her, don't listen to Mama. Don't listen to me. I think every cuss. Word that I could possibly imagine. I mean, it was coming out of my mouth. You have no idea. Idea. But I did it because of Molly.

[A]

You did it?

[C]

You did it? I did it because of Molly.

[A]

And you and Julius, we talked about your husband a little bit. You guys have, like. When you do stuff together and you talk publicly together, you laugh a lot. You laugh a lot and you laugh, Amy, you have fun. I mean, look, your relationship is very aspirational, and I don't want to project upon it because I know everyone's relationship is their own private. A relationship is like a country with its own set of rules, and you don't really know it unless you live there. But what it seems like is you have the best relationship ever, and you have a wonderful marriage and beautiful loving partner.

[C]

It's fantastic. It drives me crazy. I drive him crazy. I want to hit him, but then I. The love of my life. Yeah. You know, he's just the love of my life, you know, and when I say laugh no amount, I mean, just. He is a character. And every time he comes up and, you know, in public, you know, he puts, you know, the brave, the mask and everything on, but the guy is absolutely hysterical. I mean, and does the oddest things that. For me, there's a little bit of me that says, is he crazy? He could be crazy. I mean, he lost his. He couldn't find his saltine crackers one day.

[A]

Ooh, that's impressive.

[C]

Saltine damn crackers.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And he was convinced that someone broke into our house, was living in our attic, and had stolen his saltine crackers. And so I was like, why are you walking around the house with a baseball bat?

[B]

Me?

[C]

There's some. I can't find my saltine crackers. Be. I said, well, did you look in the cabinet behind the tuna fish? Yeah. And Dan said this. There was four packages. V. Now there's only three packages left. Vy to someone in that attic. And here's for me. What for V is about love. I was like, oh, my God, he's crazy. There's someone living in the attic. And what did I do? I grabbed my baseball bat, too, and we looked for the person together in the attic until I finally found the saltine crackers near the tuna fish. And it's just like, I love it. I do.

[A]

I know you. I mean, your love is very, very

[C]

special, you know, and then talking about his mom and just the stories, he's another one that could tell.

[A]

Well, we talk. We talked to him before your interview, and I want you to know, he's the only spouse we've talked to in the. You know, we do a thing where we kind of talk well behind somebody's back before they come in and I get a question to ask our guests. Guest. And Julius was the only spouse we wanted to talk to because we were like, first of all, they seem like they really like each other. But he spoke so beautifully, of course, about you, Viola. But he also speaks to a bigger idea of what women, a lot of women yearn for and hope for, which is that somebody really sees them. Like somebody sees them in real time and celebrates their wins.

[C]

Oh yeah, he does.

[A]

He does. You seem like you do that for each other.

[C]

Oh, yeah, totally.

[A]

And again, a simple thing to say, but sometimes hard to find like that. Do you think that is the secret to why you have been together so long is the way you do that for each other?

[C]

You know, by the time I met Julius, I absolutely understood what love is. You know, first of all, I thought he was cute. You know, I thought he had a tight ass. I'm not gonna lie to you, Amy.

[A]

Yeah, don't.

[C]

Yeah, he had a tight ass. He was a football player.

[A]

So cute. You guys are actors on a set. He was handing you blood. You were in a hot nurse's outfit.

[C]

Yeah. And I was like, he's really cute. And I was really lonely. And so that was it, of course. I mean, I just. With him it was. And I prayed for a football player type dude, you know, and it was him. Yeah. And. But you know what got me with him is he told me his story. Cuz he's a talker, but he told me his whole story from the giddy up. Cool. Everything good and bad, straight, no chaser. You know, he raises kids on his own, he's been married, you know, all of those things. It just. And for me, it opened me up. He's just a dude. He's. He's been wired for. Right? Yes.

[A]

Well, he has three really weird questions for me to ask you. I know he's great in every way, but I don't understand these questions.

[C]

Julius.

[A]

Julius. One of them is tell Ask her about Zuni. Who is Zuni? And can I google it? Because Julius was talking about a TV show that he grew up with. I've never heard.

[C]

Heard of power XL5?

[A]

What?

[C]

Oh, no, Amy. Zuni. Amy. It's a cartoon with puppets that he watched when he was a kid.

[A]

Wow.

[C]

Do you see Zuni?

[A]

Hold on. Z U N I. Okay, you see Zuni now with the giant head yeah, you see that? Let's see, let's see, let's see.

[C]

And you did. You pressed in the images of it. Let's see. Yeah, Images.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

Zuni.

[A]

Z, O, O, N, I, E, O,

[C]

Z, O, N, N, I, Z. That's right. I'm a. Classic spelling.

[A]

Something wrong for your listeners? Zuni looks like.

[C]

Who's Zuni? Look. No, I'm gonna tell you who Zuni look like. We were laying in bed and Julia said, v, you know who you look like? As soon as I met you, I was like, she make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. She remind me of somebody I know. And then I thought about it. Zuni. You look like Zuni. That's who you are, V. Zuni. And that's. This is the show that he would watch every Saturday. He was the only one in his family who wanted to watch it.

[A]

I can't believe the show. It looks like it's dolls and puppets.

[C]

Dolls and puppets. And he was the only one who wanted to watch it. None of his brothers and sisters wanted to watch it. They say, mom, Julius, he wanted to watch. We don't want to watch Zuni. And his mom was say, let that. Let that damn boy watch his Zuni. That's all you talk about. Lee. Lee is Zuni. Zuni, Zuni. Damn Zuni. Watch that damn Zuni and get your ass out of the house after you watch that Zuni. So Zuni. I remind him of Zuni. Big lips and big eyes.

[A]

It's like almost like a little ferret meets a sloth meets a. Amy.

[C]

No Amy. It's cute, though.

[A]

Zuni is messed up.

[C]

No, Zuni is messed up. I call him Ferdinand because he looks exactly like Ferdinand. We, Ferdinand the Bull. Yeah, we name people. He looked just like Ferdinand.

[A]

Okay. The other question he wanted me to ask you is. Ask her about Shadow of a Gunman. Julius, he's setting you up for some stories.

[C]

Oh, he set me up. It was one of our first dates. He said, v, you want to come? If you know him, you would know that this is a great imitation of Julius. One of my friends is doing Shadow of a Gunman. You know that play? You know that Irish play, Sean o', Casey, Shadow of a Gunman, in some small theater off Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Santa Monica. So we go to see Shadow of a Gunman, and I'm walking in going, oh, we're gonna go see some theater. And so we go to this theater, we walk in, and I'm like, okay, let's sit in the front. 99 seats. No one's at the theater. So I said, let's sit in the front. He was like, uh, we ain't sitting in the damn front. Let's sit all the way in the back. Let's sit up there in the back. I was like, but, Julius, we're all the way in the back. He said, vy, let's sit up in the back. We sit up in the back. He's got the chair near the wall. As soon as the curtains go up, he's dead asleep. The only reason why he wanted to sit in the wall is to take a nap all throughout the play. And the only time he woke up is when he thought some sex scene was gonna happen. He woke up. Up for two seconds. He woke up for two seconds thinking he was gonna see some goodimus, as we call it. And nothing happened. It was the worst production in the world. And oh, my God.

[A]

Oh, my God.

[C]

And then afterwards, he went up to his friend and he said, I love that performance. You were fan. And you know, when you did that thing, that thing you did, I was like, julius, you slept through that whole damn performance.

[A]

Are you guys watching, listening? What's making you laugh these days? Where do you get your comedy?

[C]

In bed?

[A]

Yes.

[C]

With each other.

[A]

With each other. It sounds like.

[C]

Oh, my God. With his imitations.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

I mean, no, Amy. Like, I mean, just absolutely hysterical.

[A]

Yeah. I'm telling you, it's so fun to hear how you guys like to play.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

Like, it's like. It really feels like there's, like, young versions of you. Like, healed young versions of you.

[C]

I mean, together this morning, we were just talking when I first. When we first got together and they wanted me to do the play that I won my first Tony Award for. King Headley. Yeah. But I remember when I was offered the role and I said, I don't know if that role is good enough for me. Julius, first of all, can I just tell you, I never talk like this. So the fact that I remember talking like this shows you that I'm full of shit. So I said, julius, that role is not good enough for me. And he's sitting in the living room, he's just listening to me. He just got out of the shower. I said, this role is not good enough for me. And, you know, they think I'm gonna go to New York, and they think I'm gonna do A, B and C, and they think I'm gonna do that role. I need the lead role. I need to get the lead role. And ba ba, ba, ba, Ba. And he's listening, listening, listening. And then there's a pause, and I said, so what do you think, Julius? He said, this what I think, V. You need to take your ass to New York and you need to do that damn play. Because here's the thing. You ain't got no damn job, and we not bringing in any damn money. So you need to go on and take your ass to New York and do that play. And we talk about that all the time. You know those moments, you know, of when I told him for the first time that I had the most horrific cramp?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And I was about to cry. I said my credit score was 500. And I kept that as a secret because he was so organized and together and responsible, you know? And I said, julius, I have to tell you something. He said, okay, V, go ahead, tell me. I said, julius, I have bad credit. And he said, I knew your black ass had bad credit from the moment I met you. I could tell by the way you dressed and everything, you were all over the damn place. That's okay. I know you starting to cry. Come over here. We use my credit. Don't worry about it. I knew your black ass had bad credit, and that was it. Like, moments like that of levity.

[A]

Yes, Levity.

[C]

Levity.

[A]

Of safety.

[C]

Safety of connection. Yes. You know, the freedom that I had to tell him I had bad credit, but also how he helped me build from there.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

That's the thing. Yeah. That was my big thing. I finally found it. Someone who makes your life better.

[A]

That's love.

[C]

I think so. Yeah.

[A]

That's what a healthy relationship looks like.

[C]

And a tight ass.

[A]

To end our convo today, what's the best thing about being in your 60s? It's the next decade up for me, and, I mean, I've been loving my 50s more than my 40s and more and more and more. What?

[C]

What.

[A]

What's. What. What are you loving about your 60s?

[C]

In your 60s, your life is yours. That's the best part of it. Your life is yours. You realize that. That, you know, it's a quote that it's been running through my mind is. I know it's sort of morbid, but on your last day on earth, the definition of hell is your last day on earth, who you became meets the person you could have become. I feel that that's 60s, man. The 60s is. Is. I'm going to become that woman. Because all that bullshit that I was told in the past that, you know, I had to make a certain amount of money or to Be smart enough or pretty enough or thin enough or whatever. None of that shit means shit.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

My life right now is about who I love, who loves me, and what I leave behind. That's is clean. And it's given me a certain level of bravery, too. Now, if I could put some hormones in there, that would be beautiful.

[A]

That's amazing. It makes me really look forward to what's ahead.

[C]

Yeah, well, yeah, it's the other stuff, too, but we won't talk about that.

[A]

We don't talk about that.

[C]

Let's.

[A]

Yeah, we'll just. We'll get. We'll deal with that when it comes. Viola Davis, I. It means so much that you did this.

[C]

Thank you.

[A]

I mean. I mean, thank you for being here today and for talking to me and for doing the show. I just absolutely adore you and your work.

[C]

Well, I love you, too.

[A]

And I'd love to move in with you and your husband. It won't be weird. I'll just be a roommate.

[C]

But don't go into the attic and don't eat the saltine crackers.

[A]

I'm sorry.

[C]

I'm sorry. Because you may get the baseball bat on your head. Don't steal the crackers.

[A]

I move in your attic. And I'm sorry I steal your husband saltines. But I get hungry up there. But I want to listen the two of you. Thank you so much for coming. It really means a lot.

[C]

Thank you, Amy.

[A]

Thank you so much. Viola, you're incredible and so good at what you do, and it was so wonderful to talk to you. Thank you for. For stopping by for this polar plunge. One person we didn't get a chance to talk to Viola about that I know she highly reveres and was deeply influenced by, was the actual actress, Cicely Tyson. And so I just wanted to say her name here because I know Viola has spoken about her and got to work with her on many projects, including in how to Get Away with Murder. But do yourself a favor, and if you haven't seen Cicely Tyson's work, it spans an incredible amount of time in American history. She lived to 96, and many of us got to know her when she played Kunta Kinte's mother in Roots. But Cicely at that point had been working on the stage for a very long time, and she's just been in an incredible wide variety of television and movies and is a really terrific actress and was one of our Hollywood legends. So check her stuff out, I guess. Plunge into Cicely Tyson and her work. And Viola Davis we love you. We can't wait to see what you're doing next. So thanks so much for joining us and see you soon.

[C]

Bye.

[A]

You've been listening to Good Hang. The executive producers for this show are Bill Simmons, Jenna Weiss Berman and me, Amy Poehler. The show is produced by the Ringer and Paper Kite. For the Ringer, production by Jack Wilson, cat Spillane, Kaia McMullen and Alaia Zaneris. For Paper Kite, production by Sam Green, Joel Lovell and Jenna Weiss Berman. Original music by Amy Miles.

[B]

Monster Energy Everybody knows White Monster, Zero Ultra, that's the OG it kicked off this whole zero sugar energy drink thing. But Ultra is a whole lineup now. You've got Strawberry Dreams, Blue Hawaiian Sunrise and Vice Guava Lava. And they all bring the Monster Energy punch. So if you've been living in the White can, branch out. Ultra's got a flavor for every vibe and every single one is Zero Sugar. Tap the banner to learn more.