Winners' acceptance speech by Viola Davis for Fences in the Supporting Actress category
VIOLA DAVIS: Oh my God. Thank you so much. And to all the other wonderful nominees: Naomie, Hayley, Nicole - who am I forgetting? Shit, I am so sorry. And Michelle! August Wilson. You know, my father groomed horses at the racetrack and he had a fifth grade education, and he was a janitor towards the end of his life, when he died of cancer at a McDonald's. And the reason why I say that is when he took his last breath, one of the most devastating things that went through my mind is: did his life matter? And August answers that question so brilliantly, because what he did is he said that our lives mattered as African-Americans. The horse groomer, the sanitation worker, the people who grew up under the heavy boot of Jim Crow, the people who did not make it into history books, but they have a story; and those stories deserve to be told, because they lived. Oh!
And so thank you, August. Thank you, Denzel Washington, for honouring actors, and not the sky, not the lead because sometimes, you know, we are sacrificed for great cinematic vision, which is not bad. But it's nice to be the centre and the focus as an actor. And to Michael T Williamson, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Jovan Adepo, Russell Hornsby, Saniyya Sidney, all the wonderful actors, and Paramount, Macro, Braun, Scott Rudin, Molly Allen, Todd Black. To my beautiful husband, Julius, of 13 years and my daughter, Genesis, who every time I tell her a story at night, she says the most important phrase, which is, "Mommy, please put me in the story", and I do. Thank you.
