Co-Stars Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer were both winners at last night’s Critics Choice Awards awards for their roles as domestic staff in The Help. Viola won Best Actress for her portrayal of Aibileen Clark. She gave an impressive speech that was both heartfelt and inspiring. I found myself getting all choked up while listening to her, and there’s talk that her incredible speech last night could bolster her prospects for an Oscar. A video is below and here’s some of what she said. It’s hard to do it justice in print:
Viola Davis strengthened her Oscar prospects with a best actress win at Thursday’s Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, but she also tugged at heartstrings by delivering a powerful acceptance speech.
“I am absolutely so humbled,” said Davis, who won the award for playing Aibileen Clark, a maid living in 1960s Mississippi.
“I wanted to be somebody. I wanted to dream big and make a mark somehow, and that’s something absolutely that Aibileen was not afforded,” she continued. “I considered it my honor to pay homage to these women at this time period who were not allowed to dream.”
During the speech, cameras cut to Davis’ co-star Octavia Spencer, herself a winner in the best supporting actress category, who appeared to have tears in her eyes.
“The Help” finished the night with three awards in all – acting honors for Davis, Spencer and a best acting ensemble award for the entire cast.
[From CBSNews]
A few women that the camera cut away to looked like they were crying during Davis’ speech, it wasn’t just Spencer. Davis said she used to ride the bus for 5 hours to take acting classes when she was 14 and I found that detail so moving. It showed the level of dedication she’s had for her craft since she was young. Octavia Spencer’s speech was a little more typical for an awards show, and she was similarly surprised and overwhelmed at the honor.
In terms of fashion, Viola Davis was just about the only actress in red, she was wearing a deep v-neck Raoul gown that made her cleavage look insane. I loved her look and styling. Viola’s fashion has been spot on this season. Kaiser pointed out to me that Viola’s hair hasn’t always been that great, and that she’s been wearing some wigs that leave something to be desired. Her short hair and impeccable makeup went perfectly with the modern silhouette of her dress.
Octavia also brought it in a gorgeous draped black Tadashi Shoji dress with an understated jeweled belt. Her hair and makeup look great in photos, although I thought her makeup needed more of a pop when I saw her on screen. Her earrings and especially that giant ring she wore which mirrored the design of her belt were just perfect.
Viola Davis’ acceptance speech:
Get More: 17th Annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards
Octavia Spencer’s acceptance speech:
Get More: 17th Annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards
photo credit: Fame and WENN
Am loving it
Yay! They both look fabulous, and I’m very happy they won, both gave great performances.
I love Viola’s dress on her.
Ditto
I straight up almost cried during Viola’s speech. I hated The Help, but I have nothing but love for Viola Davis and I hope she wins it all.
Curious as to why you hated “The Help?” I haven’t seen yet but everyone raves about it so strongly. I always like a contrasting viewpoint.
It just wasn’t my cup of tea. I felt like it kind of glossed over race related issues in service of making people feel better about “white guilt”. But again, Viola’s performance was amazing.
I didn’t care for that Sandra Bullock movie either. The one she won the oscar for.
I was hesitant about seeing as well thinking it would just gloss over race matters, but i was impressed and enjoyed it tremendously. So pleased these two African American women won, though my favorite was the woman on the hill who learned to cook. She would be an awesome Marilyn Monroe! Loved her. The entire cast did some awesome acting, even the main protagonist. Good job with this movie! Talented people.
IMO….
I thought the script fell short…I did not like the archetype portrayal of the South, and especially not the PG version of race relations at that time (though they made racism obvious via textbook examples, they didn’t make it ‘disturbing’ enough for my taste). I thought there were too many toilet jokes, and that certain characters were one-dimensional. I also thought they made Eugenia (Emma Stone’s character) too modern – to the extent that it made her character unrealistic, especially in comparison with her peers in the film. It’s not to say the film didn’t have strengths, particularly the acting. Viola Davis can make you feel a lot of emotion with just one glance. But as with most films intended for mass-marketing, it ended up being too mild-mannered to convey real depth.
As Alabamans, who grew up with “help” (most of whom were with our family for decades), my mother and I thought “The Help” was incredible. I actually liked the movie better than the book, which I thought was bogged down by Skeeter’s story.
Remember, it was a story specifically about the relationship between maids and families and about a young woman realizing her desire to write: the story was not about civil rights or the political climate (also a powerful legacy for those of us from Montgomery). It portrayed the reality of race relations in upper-class families: some employers were racist jerks; some cared for their help and they and their employees truly loved each other. Yes, the book and the movie are presented more from a white perspective than a black perspective, but I thought it was incredibly moving and true to the experience of household help in the deep South.
Love Viola Davis…she looks amazing! Congrats to them both!
Yay!!! I hope they both get a lot more roles from here on out…. I have been seeing Octavia Spencer for years now in little parts here and there and really enjoying her. And is it just me or does Viola Davis have the most velvety-looking skin ever?
Octavia looks fantastic! Love them both. I wasn’t crazy about The Help though. That said, I can’t really imagine the challenge of conveying racial tensions in the American South while maintaining a humorous/feel-good spirit throughout the film. These two actresses did an amazing job though, and I hope to see them in many more movies.
YAYY!!
It really bothers me when folks go on and on about how hard their life was. Can’t folks just graciously accept an award. She at least was going to acting classes – many don’t have the opportunity in our world. Some folks would have looked at taking the bus for five hours to take acting classes as a positive opportunity. It is all relative.
What exactly was ungracious in Viola’s speech or behavior?
I didn’t notice the slightest bit of unfriendliness, or smugness, or any other kind of strange attitude.
I’m pretty sure that she would also view it as a positive opportunity, considering she was on stage, accepting a prestigious award for her acting. She seems very gracious and humble to me.
Why should she have to deny her own life history? Who are we to tell her to just stand there and smile when everyone else bray on incoherently about nothing for half an hour at the podium.
Why not just be happy for her instead of picking apart her moment that was sooooo long in the making? Black actresses don’t get critical acclaim for roles that don’t require them to be downtrodden, disenfranchised and/or martyring themselves, which must be draining. She has to show the world how great she is because she’s a minority and this might be the only chance she gets to show off ‘impeccable makeup’, a cute ‘do, an elegant dress, and comprehensible speech to a really large audience–OWN IT!
Yard of blonde girls with little in the way of talent but unbearable attitude go further in a shorter time and with less work. Here’s a woman who did do the work required to become great at what she does, made the sacrifices and gracefully made headway in an industry that has little use for women who aren’t 22-year-old Maxim WASPs. She’s earned that speech and goodness knows the rambling minivans to nowhere like Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts or Gwyneth Paltrow–whose speeches were agonizing and longer had no greater claims than did Viola.
@Jo ‘Mama’ Besser: I cannot agree with you more.
There is no reason why she shouldn’t have given the speech that she gave. She has worked hard for her career, and she has every right to speak about it. To be honest, I cannot think about a better time to speak about it than when you are accepting an award.
I didn’t see “The Help” or read the book because I had the feeling that they would rub me the wrong way, but I am very happy that Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer have gotten awards and are being recognized for their work. It’s about darn time.
I haven’t seen/read it either for the same reason, but one day I might bite the bullet. My mother worked as a domestic in order to immigrate to Canada, so obviously the circumstances aren’t identical but maybe I’ll watch it with her, someday. That experience had its own set of challenges and reading some of the orientation material they were given upon landing proves to be quite the education.
Some advice was helpful (this is what snow is and no, we never got used to winter, either, so don’t hold out hope), some insulting (you’re lucky this family will have you, don’t gossip and be lazy and back-talkative, fight your DNA on that front! This is what soap is, this is how to not kill a baby–pardon me, but I don’t remember reading A History Of Puerperal Fever: Montego Bay Style), and some very depressing (this is what ‘deportation’ is if you get pregnant, skanks. And don’t you even think of getting married while you’re working for the family, they’ll replace you with someone who isn’t a slut).
But nope, you can’t just tell it like it is, you have to force the ‘she was just like a part of the family’ so people can sentimentalize freely. Would she get past your front door without a mop in a bucket in hand? Have you ever cleaned her toilet or looked after her sick kid? Not family. Talking to people who have employed domestics and talking to former domestics proves they have really different ideas about who constitutes as family. From my experience, these ladies didn’t consider themselves to be part of their employer’s family and they’ll roll their eyes at the idea, finding the notion disingenuous and patly circumvents the agency of said maid to decide if she wants that kind of relationship, or not. It’s kind of a moot point because it’s one of those things that people say that don’t mean anything after 5:00 pm. Did anyone ask her how she would feel about holding such a position? Doubt it. That lack of interest on the part of the maid in taking up that narrative is frequently taken as a sign of ungratefulness or backwards-looking race baiting, but it’s not like that. It’s more that she’s in this situation and if someone or some force building a whole universe around it without your input and outside of your choice, whatever you make of that universe is outside of her domain and often concern. It doesn’t mean they hate the family at all, just that abstractions and indulgences and lofty ideas that don’t ever translate into a pay raise or something tangibly beneficial are kind of the affair of the person constructing this alternate relationship.
As far as the ones I’ve met go, they were never terribly interested in being absorbed into the fold of the one handling her cash. They had families of their own that get neglected for the sake of a stranger’s, so that circle that have chosen or has reared them suits them fine and it is for the sake of those families at their homes that they ‘put up’ with the employer’s. You don’t have to pay someone to be in your family (until it goes to court), right? It’s a fascinating contrast in perspectives and goes a way toward explaining to people who don’t understand the emotional stonewalling they say they experienced when it came those to after work relations–why your maid didn’t invite you in that one time you drove her home because of the storm.
It’s like the episode of Maude when Florida moves away to star in her own spinoff. Even though they had an atypically close friendship, they very quickly realised that once she walked out that door, they wouldn’t see each other again. And they didn’t. Life.
Anyway, when your soon-to-be neighbours think that highly of you there’s no time to enlighten them on top of making a wage. You can imagine how shocked they were to hear this crop of women from the sunny Caribbean had actually done some reasearch before leaving their homes, family, society and education behind. It IS shocking. But what’s more is that they knew enough of the major cities in Canada to flatly refuse to be shipped to Winnepeg (known as ‘Winter-peg’ to other Canadians) and had a population as white as that driven snow at the time. I don’t know how they managed it (but if my mother was anything in the sixties like was later, hours of screaming for…ever might have been a tactic), but they bargained up to southern Ontario. Right now, it’s a balmy -30 celsius where I live, which is definitely not Winnepeg.
It’s exciting to see they are receiving much-deserved press and acclaim for their roles in this film. I hope it encourages others in Hollywood to take on films that tackle social and historically-raw issues like this one.
I’m so happy for Viola and Octavia, congrats to both!
That short hair made Viola look younger, and the color of her dress was just perfect.
I love Octavia’s face.
It’s so open and friendly.
The color and cut of that dress look gorgeous on Viola.
Damn, may be it’s me but I thought Viola’s hair and makeup was horrible. Octavia’s makeup was tragic as well. Neither can pull off the “bare lip” look with dark eyes. I think older women have to be very careful with the heavy smoky eye look. I don’t typically find it flattering on women of a certain age. I do have to say that Viola is in fabulous shape. I had no idea that she was so toned and trim.
Viola’s skin is freaking ridiculous. Her coloring is absolutely perfect, and every brightly-colored dress she wears totally blows me away!
They both look gorgeous. I really hope there are more acceptance speeches in their future.
I hope so too.
Hopefully a sign of good things to come for both women. Well deserved wins!
Yay! I love these ladies. I’ve seen them around in different roles, and I’m thrilled they were given the chance to shine in “The Help”.
I saw it with my mom and sister. We thought it was a moving film (though there were some problematic parts, overall it was very good!).
I hope they can continue to thrive and get better and better roles moving forward. It’s hard for black women in Hollywood since there are so few roles! These ladies definitely deserve their moment, and I hope this gets Hollywood to expand their narrow views about who to cast in movies!
I LOVE her new hairstyle! she looks adorable with it and it makes her look younger too. Love both of them, and they both looked great.
I know some people didn’t like it but i ADORED emma stone’s suit, so three thumbs up for ‘The Help’ ladies!
I’m not the biggest fan of the movie, but those ladies did give great performances. So happy for them!
I loved The Help, Viola and Octavia were really great, they deserved to win.
love it.love them.
Im so happy for the both of them. They definately earned that award. I watched the movie about four times and bought the DVD. Excellent actors! I think the whole cast was great!