Viola Davis has achieved the extremely rare EGOT status, meaning she’s won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. She’s earned the honor with a win for Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording. The Recording Academy awarded her for her performance of the audiobook for her memoir Finding Me. Davis accepted the award during the 2023 Grammys ceremony, Sunday.
“Oh, my god. I wrote this book to honor the six-year-old Viola. To honor her, her life, her joy, her trauma, everything,” Davis said, before adding, “It has just been such a journey. I just EGOT! Thank you, Harper Collins, Lavaille Lavette, you epitomize sister friend. And really, to everybody who was part of my story. And the best chapter yet, my loves: Julius, Genesis. You are my life, My joy. you are the best chapter in this book. Thank you.”
With the victory, Davis joins other EGOT winners John Legend, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Richard Rodgers, Whoopi Goldberg, Audrey Hepburn, as well as Rita Moreno. She’s additionally just the third Black woman in history to achieve the honor. Davis won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2017 for Fences. In 2015, she earned an Emmy for her leading role in How to Get Away with Murder. She also has Tony awards for King Hedley II as well as the Broadway production of Fences.
Davis previously admitted that winning an EGOT would be a “huge accomplishment” for her. She explained what it would mean to her during an interview in January.
“I feel this way, even though it’s probably a very dramatic statement on my part: I think that everybody wants their life to mean something. I believe in the Cherokee birth blessing, which is ‘May you live long enough to know why you were born.’ I do believe that you literally wanna blow a hole through this world in whatever way you can,” Davis explained, before elaborating, “A lot of people don’t know how to do that. A lot of people haven’t found that thing that they’re passionate about, that they can do. Some have. But we all are looking for that, blowing a hole through this earth before we leave it. I think about that in my work a lot. I really found that thing that I love to do. So I always wanna make it meaningful.”
[Via]