Viola Davis is 51 years old, and she's not ashamed of her body. In an interview with Tom Hanks on Variety’s Actors on Actors, the actress says that she's got nothing to hide when it comes to sex scenes.
“I’m not a woman who’s a size 2,” Davis said. “If I’m in a sex scene, I want to play the sex scene. I want to say, ‘This is why I’m attracted to you. It’s gotten to this point; this is what my body looks like.’”
Davis even mentioned the fact that although her sex scenes may involve people who look like they've been in the gym every day for a year, it's not intimidating at all. Hanks even had to chime in on that fact.
“They never show characters at the gym working out,” Hanks said. “They always just all have a great body.”
Davis' role in ABC's How to Get Away With Murder is definitely a groundbreaking one. When was the last time you saw a dark-skinned black woman over the age of 50 not only being able to be sexy but also being sexualized? And by sexualized, we mean being shown as someone who's desirable and basically enjoys sex. And that's why, Davis said, she thinks the role is important.
“I saw it as an opportunity way bigger than doing good work—I saw it as an opportunity for a dark-skinned actress of 50 to be in a role that’s sexualized, not sexy,” she said. “There’s a difference between sexualized and sexy.”