'Powerful and Historic' Speech From Best Supporting Actress

Viola Davis had everyone emotional in Dolby Theatre
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 26, 2017 10:41 PM CST

In what Business Insider calls a "powerful and historic" speech, Viola Davis accepted her best supporting actress award for Fences, and she didn't hold back the tears. Davis—the first black performer to win an Oscar, Emmy, and Tony for acting—noted that everyone with the greatest stories are buried in cemeteries and that "exhume those bodies, exhume those stories," per the Washington Post. "The stories of the people who dreamed big and never saw those dreams to fruition, people who fell in love and lost." She tearfully continued on that "we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life" and gave a shoutout to late Fences screenplay author August Wilson and co-star Denzel Washington, whom she called "oh captain, my captain." (More Oscars stories.)

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