While some actresses would shy away from letting their line deliveries get emotional enough that their spit and snot practically flies at the camera, Viola Davis is not some actresses. If you feel like you’ve heard the word “Oscar” more than enough when it comes to Davis and Denzel Washington’s Fences, get ready to hear it one more time: Viola. Davis. Is. Going. To. Win. Best. Actress. This. Year.
Turn back the clock to 2010, and the hottest ticket on Broadway is a revival of August Wilson’s Pulitzer-winning play Fences, a poignant and daring meditation on race relations in America with a focus on the hardships of the black experience. It has all the necessary qualifications for a bona fide Broadway smash: a handsome pedigree of awards and acclaim (the production took the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play in 2010), urgent social significance, and some Hollywood talent slumming it on the boards in between film projects. Denzel Washington and Viola Davis starred as the married couple at the heart of Fences, winning raves and a Tony apiece, and created a rare sensation that dazzled audiences for thirteen weeks and then vanished.