On “America Inside Out With Katie Couric,” Viola Davis sits down with the journalist to discuss issues like gender inequality and unconscious bias facing her and other women in the workplace.
Viola Davis is no stranger to breaking barriers in Hollywood.
As the star of ABC’s How to Get Away With Murder, she’s the first and only black woman to win a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, which she received in 2015. After winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for 2016's Fences, she became the first black actor to earn the “Triple Crown of Acting,” by winning a competitive Oscar, Emmy and Tony.
But the actress has been open about her humble beginnings, growing up in poverty in Rhode Island, telling ET that part of the way she overcame her struggles was to “dream big.”
“Dreaming is like going to the gym for me. It's what I did every day,” Davis said at the time. “Every day I tackled something. Every day, even when I had obstacles in front of me, even if it was something I could do that made me just a step closer to my dreams, I did it.”
Now, on the National Geographic docuseries America Inside Out With Katie Couric, the actress is recounting the barriers she faced as a woman of color trying to break through in Hollywood.
“I’m not pretty enough; I’m too fat; I’m not good enough; my hair -- that was a big one; my skin tone,” Davis lists off in a frank conversation with the journalist.
In tonight's episode, “The Revolt,” Couric examines why Davis and other women remain more vulnerable to harassment and abuse in the workplace. She then goes beyond those tragic stories to discover how gender inequality, unconscious bias and sexual harassment are linked through interviews with other trailblazers like Geena Davis and Elisabeth Moss, who are helping Hollywood change in the Time’s Up era.
America Inside Out With Katie Couric airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on National Geographic.
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