Viola Davis has responded to widespread criticism of her latest performance by stating that criticism “serves no purpose.”
The Oscar winner has received negative feedback from both critics and social media for his role as Michelle Obama on Showtime’s The First Lady. In an interview with the BBC, Davis called the reaction “incredibly hurtful”.
“Critics have absolutely no purpose,” she said. “And I’m not saying that in a bad way. They always feel like they are telling you something you don’t know. Somehow you live a life where you are surrounded by people who lie to you and “I will be the person who leans in and tells you the truth”. So that gives them the opportunity to be cruel to you.”
She said that playing someone as well known as the former first lady was “almost impossible” and that “you do too much or too little”.
The First Lady, which also stars Michelle Pfeiffer and Gillian Anderson, was seen by many as an awards play released in the final stages of the Emmy competition, with The Washington Post’s Inkoo Kang criticizing “Emmy-baiting performances.” .
Davis previously won an Emmy for her performance on the ABC thriller series How to Get Away with Murder.
The First Lady has a 42% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the Guardian’s Adrian Horton noting “disgusting dialogue, jumbled pacing and parody-level performances” and Variety’s Caroline Framke writing that the actors “make an effort to make their characters believable to bring to life”.
“What’s next for the pain, the failure?” she said of the bad reviews. “But you have to. Not everything will be a prize-worthy achievement.”
Davis won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the August Wilson adaptation Fences and has been nominated for roles on Doubt, The Help, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. She will next be seen in the action biopic The Woman King, a film she has described as her “magnum opus.”
“Ultimately, I feel like my job as a leader is to make bold decisions,” she said. “Win or fail, that is my duty.”