Viola Davis Says A Director Once Called Her His Maid’s Name

Veteran actress Viola Davis publicly recalled a time a director referred to her by his maid’s name in a recent conversation during the Variety and Kering Women In Motion conversation at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.
Speaking about Black women and the long-standing diversity issue in Hollywood, Davis shared the particular microaggression she experienced from an unnamed director and how it impacted her award-winning career.
“I had a director who did that to me. He said, ‘Louise!’ I knew him for 10 years and he called me Louise and I find out that it’s because his maid’s name is Louise,” Davis said, according to Variety. “I was maybe around 30 at the time, so it was a while ago. But what you have to realize is that those micro-aggressions happen all the time.”
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