Viola Davis is 50 years old today! A milestone in birthdays; half a century. We all should be so lucky to get there…

I thought about what we could do to celebrate Ms Davis, an actress we’ve both heaped praise on, and been critical of at times, on this blog over the years – par for the course, for an artist of her stature. But there’s certainly a respect that I think we all have for her talent, and every single time Viola Davis’ name is attached to anything, we pay attention, which speaks volumes of our appreciation for, as well as our expectations of her.

I thought I’d keep it simple and hand the mic over to you guys to share your most memorable Viola Davis moments – whether on-screen or off-screen. When did she really move you with something she said, or something she did – again, whether off- or on-screen? 

I did find this old 2010 almost hour-long conversation with Viola Davis and Denzel Washington, when they both sat down with Lynn Hirschberg for a chat, around the time both actors were starring in August Wilson’s "Fences" on Broadway. It’s actually a really good, fun, informative conversation on the business of acting from the POV of 2 of the top African American of this century.

I especially loved Viola Davis in it, because, as I remember thinking when the interview actually happened, we rarely ever got to see her off-screen, as herself. Obviously since then, we’ve seen a lot of her off screen; but at the time of the below interview, we knew her mostly from her work, and didn’t often get to see her in this context. So it was refreshing.

Watch the lengthy conversation below, split up into 5 parts (or bookmark this post to watch when you have an hour to kill), and then, in the comments section, reply to my above question on your most memorable Viola Davis moments.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5: