Viola Davis leads the way in a different kind of battle.
The 36-year-old is the youngest woman to play the game in a professional capacity. When she turned pro at the age of 21, she was just one year removed from her first acting role at age 16 (as a young lesbian in the movie “The Parent Trap”).
At 32, Davis is in her second season as a TV analyst on TNT’s “The Contender.” In the next year, she will host the first season of “Dancing with the Stars,” along with appearing on the first season of “Project Runway.”
But her biggest acting role is the one she wants you to see first. She wrote, directed and starred in the short film “Breath to Be Still,” a short film that debuted last year at the Sundance Film Festival. For Variety, director/star/producer Sara Van Meter said the movie’s inspiration stemmed from a personal experience.
“[My inspiration] is this simple love affair, because it’s so far from the typical Hollywood movie,” Davis said in an interview from New York that was first published Aug. 9. She added that the love story is a “real love affair.”
Davis had a different path to getting involved in acting. Born in Georgia to a military family, she moved with her mother across the country during her childhood to live in Louisiana, where she attended New Orleans International and was a cheerleader there.
A chance meeting with a talent agent landed Davis a spot on a local television show at the age of 14. She moved from Louisiana to New York City just three and a half years later with her family, earning her spot on a local television show at 12.
From there, she was a part of two local dramas and was accepted into the Screen Actors Guild. At 21, she was the youngest actress to get her start on a TV show.
But Davis never got to play the character she wanted to portray. “I was on TV, and I really wanted to be on that stage,” said Davis, who credits a good friend and mentor – director and producer Rob Cohen – with helping her find her path from working on a local TV show to auditioning for the Broadway show “Cabaret.”
“Rob helped me get into a really great program at NYU,” Davis said. “I didn’t know if I was going to be able to make it