Viola Davis Takes A Big Step Toward Becoming The Next EGOT Winner
Viola Davis is just one letter away from achieving one of Hollywood's most elusive feats: becoming an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) winner. Her journey to earning the unofficial title began with the "T." In 2001, Davis took home her first Tony Award for her featured role as Tonya in the August Wilson play "King Hedley II." During her acceptance speech (via YouTube), the emotional actor said, "I'm not the best, I'm just one of the many blessed people in this business." Her career would beg to differ with the first half of that statement.
When Davis went after that "E" in 2015, she added another jewel to her crown for her role as Annalise Keating in "How to Get Away With Murder." It was the first time a Black woman had won an Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a drama series, and she later told Variety, "I keep expecting to be that little girl who loses the contest. It's a mixture of disbelief and joy and acceptance."
She gained her third EGOT letter in 2016, and it came with another rare honor. Davis won her first Oscar for her supporting role as Rose in "Fences" after taking home a Tony Award for the same role six years earlier. Per Broadway World, this placed her in the company of just three other women who can boast the Oscar-Tony double for playing the same character on the screen and stage. Now, Davis has a legit shot at earning that "G."
How Viola Davis scored a Grammy nomination
If Viola Davis achieves EGOT status by winning a Grammy, "The Woman King" actor will join an elite group of entertainers. Among the 17 stars who already hold the title are Rita Moreno, Jennifer Hudson, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Audrey Hepburn, Whoopi Goldberg, John Legend, and Mel Brooks, per GoldDerby.
In 2017, Davis told ABC News that winning an EGOT seemed out of reach for her because she doesn't sing. "Maybe I'll do a spoken word thing with Kanye West or something like that!" she quipped. Davis did go on to belt out the blues song "These Dogs of Mine" in the 2020 film "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," per Variety, but she didn't get her Grammy nomination for singing or collaborating with Ye. Instead, she'll be facing off against a talented bunch in the best audiobook, narration, and storytelling recording category, per Deadline. Her fellow nominees are Brooks, Jamie Foxx, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Questlove.
Davis is nominated for her work narrating her own memoir, "Finding Me." In an interview with The New York Times, she opened up about what it was like to read her own words aloud. "I felt I was living through those moments with every word I spoke," she revealed. Davis also compared the experience to acting, saying, "The only person I could hide behind was me. There was no other character."