Viola Davis — American Actress born on August 11, 1965,

Viola Davis is an American actress. She won the 2001 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role as Tonya in the original production of King Hedley II, and the 2010 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her role as Rose Maxon in the revival of Fences. In 2014, she began starring as Annalise Keating on the ABC drama How to Get Away with Murder, and in 2015 she became the first African American woman, as well as the first black woman of any nationality, to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. The role also won her a SAG Award. In 2012, she was listed by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world... (wikipedia)

And this is what was fascinating to me about 'The Help'; they were ordinary people who did extraordinary things.
I love Wal-Mart. You can put that down. I love Wal-Mart. My husband and I hang out there.
We grew up in abject poverty. Acting, writing scripts and skits were a way of escaping our environment at a very young age.
In life, you know, they do this in focus groups; if you were in such and such circumstance, what would you do? Well, you never know what you're going do unless you're faced with it.
I do believe that there are African Americans who have thick accents. My mom has a thick accent; my relatives have thick accents. But sometimes you have to adjust when you go into the world of film, TV, theatre, in order to make it accessible to people.