Tag Archives: Viola Davis

How To Get Away With Murder’s Viola Davis Applauds How Her Character’s Sexuality Is Represented

Academy Award winning actor, Viola Davis – who is famed for playing lawyer and professor Annalise Keating in How To Get Away With Murder – has praised treatment Keating’s sexuality in the show.

Talking E! News, she explained that Keating, who was identified as pansexual by show creator Pete Nowalk, has an “interesting” love life.

I love the idea that she’s just searching for love and intimacy and whoever will give it to her.

I love that it’s not coming from a place of damage and being screwed up because I don’t think it’s screwed up.”

She added that it was a “liberating” role to play.

I think it’s an interesting, liberating thought to just seek the person who is seeking you.

It’s kind of an interesting 21st Century element to place in this character.”

Davis goes on to explain that she hopes Keating can act as inspiration for the LGBT+ community.

I’m at a place where I just want to do anything that is different. And anything that I feel is going to touch people in a way. I think a lot of homosexuals and the LGBT community, they’re kind of feeling like they’re on the outside now and I think it’s wonderful to have a character like that to relate to and is not once again coming from a place of damage but coming from a place of seeking, of really wanting to be loved and love.”

Speaking at GLAAD, Nowalk said that he was “lucky” because his characters are bad.

I got really lucky in not having to make my characters perfect.

Because they’re all bad people. You don’t necessarily have to make them do things that aren’t real.

Viola’s character—we’ve never said, but I think she’s pansexual. She gets to just be bad in all the best ways.

In that way, it’s very liberating to write any LGBTQ character on the show.”

Oscar 2017: ‘Moonlight’ Earns Eight Oscar Nominations, Including Best Picture, Best Director

The nominees for the 89th annual Academy Awards are finally in.

As expected, La La Land was the big story from the nominations announcement for the 89th Academy Awards, garnering 14 nominations, tying Titanic and All About Eve for the most of any movie.

But Moonlight, with its nine nominations, could still come away winning big at the show.

The film is up for eight awards, including best picture, director (Barry Jenkins) and supporting awards for Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris.

Adapted from a play by Tarell Alvin McCraney, Moonlight follows Chiron, a boy growing up in Liberty City. The city of Miami is the backdrop as Chiron struggles with his fraught relationship with his drug-addicted mother; threats and fights with school bullies; and the secret of his sexuality.

The film has been praised by critics and LGBT community alike for its “exploration of gay black masculinity… managing to do so without ever diminishing the lives full of complex humanity that black gay men still manage to have in America while navigating that reality”.

In contrast to last year’s #OscarsSoWhite controversy – when the academy put forward all-white rosters of acting nominees – Oscar voters chose to foster and better recognize diversity in filmmaking.

That effort shows in the nominations, which went to a number of actors and directors of colour.

Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Dev Patel, and Ruth Negga also got nods for their performances.

Finally, Ava Duvernay’s 13th, Raoul Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro, and Ezra Edelman’s OJ: Made in America are all up for Best Documentary, and all deal with the spectre of racism in America.

This year’s effort is by no means perfect, but it’s a welcome start as the Academy improves going forward.


Here is the list of nominees.

Best Picture

Arrival

Fences

Hacksaw Ridge

Hell or High Water

Hidden Figures

La La Land

Lion

Manchester by the Sea

Moonlight

Best Director

Damien Chazelle, La La Land

Denis Villeneuve, Arrival

Mel Gibson, Hacksaw Ridge

Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea

Barry Jenkins, Moonlight

Best Original Screenplay

Hell or High Water

La La Land

The Lobster

Manchester by the Sea

20th Century Women

Best Adapted Screenplay

Arrival

Fences

Hidden Figures

Lion

Moonlight

Best Actor

Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea

Ryan Gosling, La La Land

Denzel Washington, Fences

Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic

Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge

Best Actress

Emma Stone, La La Land

Isabelle Huppert, Elle

Ruth Negga, Loving

Natalie Portman, Jackie

Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins

Best Supporting Actor

Mahershala Ali, Moonlight

Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water

Michael Shannon, Nocturnal Animals

Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea

Dev Patel, Lion

Best Supporting Actress

Nicole Kidman, Lion

Viola Davis, Fences

Naomie Harris, Moonlight

Octavia Spencer, Hidden Figures

Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea

Best Documentary

Fire at Sea

I Am Not Your Negro

Life Animated

OJ: Made in America

13th

Best Documentary Short Subject

The White Helmets

Extremis

Watani: My Homeland

4.1 Miles

Joe’s Violin

Best Live Action Short Film

Timecode

Sing (Mindenki)

Silent Nights

Ennemis Interieurs

La Femme et le TGV

Best Animated Film

Zootopia

Kubo and the Two Strings

Moana

My Life as a Zucchini

The Red Turtle

Best animated short film

Piper

Pearl

Borrowed Time

Pear Cider and Cigarettes

Blind Vaysha

Best Foreign Language Film

Land of Mine

A Man Called Ove

The Salesman

Tana

Toni Erdmann

Best Cinematography

Arrival

Silence

La La Land

Lion

Moonlight

Best Production Design

Arrival

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Hail Caesar

La La Land

Passengers

Best Visual Effects

Deepwater Horizon

Doctor Strange

Jungle Book

Kubo and the Two Strings

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Best Film Editing

La La Land

Moonlight

Hacksaw Ridge

Arrival

Hell or High Water

Best Costume Design

Allied

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Florence Foster Jenkins

Jackie

La La Land

Best Makeup and Hair

A Man Called Ove

Star Trek Beyond

Suicide Squad

Best Original Score

Jackie

La La Land

Lion

Moonlight

Passengers

Best Original Score

La La Land, Justin Hurwitz

Moonlight, Nicholas Britell

Lion, Dustin O’Halloran and Hauschka

Jackie, Mica Levi

Passengers, Thomas Newman

Best Original Song

“Audition,” La La Land

“Can’t Stop the Feeling,” Trolls

“City of Stars,” La La Land

“The Empty Chair,” Jim: The James Foley Story

“How Far I’ll Go,” Moana

Best sound editing

La La Land

Hacksaw Ridge

Arrival

Sully

Deepwater Horizon

Best Sound Mixing

La La Land

Hacksaw Ridge

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Arrival

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

Daily Juice: Kristen Stewart Confirms New Relationship, Scotland Is Now The Most LGBT Friendly Parliament In The World

In a short, but sweet interaction at Coachella Kristen Stewart was asked “Aren’t you Soko’s girlfriend?”. Her response “Yeah, dude” – wicked. Need we say any more.

coachella-2016-soko coachella-2016-portraits-kristen-stewart

Viola Davis has a message to LGBT Families – “I’m fighting for you,”. She shared the message at the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of her new film Custody, a movie about a mother’s struggle to keep legal guardianship of her child.

Mel B and Duncan James have been announced as the hosts of this year’s British LGBT Awards.

Scotland is now the most LGBT Parliament in the World.

Portia de Rossi and Ellen Degeneres were in attendance at George and Amal Clooney’s fundraiser for Hillary Clinton this weekend.

clinton-clooney-fundraiser-1024

Aza Comics is hoping to buck the trend by creating lesbian superheroes that won’t die so quickly.

In its upcoming book series two lesbian superheroes, Genie and Jase, cooperate to overcome various challenges and develop a lasting romance together.

genie-and-jase-promo-e1460988631900

Creator, Jazmin Truesdale told Gay Star News.

Their storylines are based on how they work together as an action duo to fight villains and overcome obstacles.”

And finally, out bisexual boxer Nicola Adams will be competing in Rio 2016.

Kyte-photograhy

7 Of The Biggest Things To Affect Women in 2015

It’s hard to believe that the year is almost over. 2015 has whizzed by like super progressive blur as so many important political decisions were made and so many important discussions were had about equality.

But what were the most influential? And which events made the most headlines?

Read on for our round up of the biggest things to affect women that happened in 2015.


1. Viola Davis’ Emmy Win

viola-davis

On this very site, we’ve mentioned countless times how Hollywood is happy to exclude and refuse to hire actors of colour altogether. So naturally, we (and many other people around the world) for ecstatic when Viola Davis won an Emmy Award for her role as bisexual lawyer Annalise Keating.

Making history as the first African-American woman to win an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, Viola Davis’ also gave an incredible speech that not only quoted abolitionist and humanitarian Harriet Tubman but it also name-checked other black actresses (such as Gabrielle Union and Kerry Washington) and called on Hollywood to offer the same opportunities to women of colour as it does to white women.


2. Misty Copeland Becomes the First Principal Dancer at the American Ballet Theatre

Misty Copeland

The ‘principal dancer’ is a dancer at the highest rank within a professional dance company; it’s the role that every ballet dancer would love to hold and it’s one that Misty Copeland, who has been a dancer at the American Ballet Theatre for 14 years, especially wanted to achieve. In her 2014 memoir, Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina, she revealed that “if I don’t rise to principal, people will feel I have failed them”.

But Misty Copeland needn’t have worried to much as in 2015 she was finally promoted to the role of principal dancer in a round of summer promotions. In her role, she became the very first African-American woman to become a principal dancer in the American Ballet Theatre’s 75 year history and of the achievement.


3. Supreme Court Same-Sex Marriage

Californians React To Supreme Court Rulings On Prop 8 And DOMA

In other historic news from 2015, in June, the United States’ Supreme Court finally had a vote on same-sex marriage. Previously, it had been up to each state in the country to decide individually whether or not same-sex couples could get married putting couples in a difficult position as it meant that they may have to travel hours away from home just to enjoy the same ‘big white wedding in a church’ privilege that opposite sex couples got to enjoy.

Thankfully, on June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court voted to make same-sex marriage a right nationwide. This meant that one great obstacle on the road to equal rights had been defeated and that anywhere in the country, same sex couples could marry each other.


4. FIFA Women’s World Cup 2015

wambachkiss

Another big event making headlines over the summer of 2015 is the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Here at KitschMix we were excited not just because it’s always wonderful seeing talented women do what they do best but because many out athletes such as Megan Rapinoe, Casey Stoney and Abby Wambach would be taking part as well.

Not only did the England women’s national team reach their highest ever position in the tournament (they got 3rd place) but the final, where the USA beat Japan 5-2 also became the most watched football match in US history as it had 25.4 million viewers, beating the 18.2 million viewers who tuned into watch the US men take on Portugal the year before.

(That said, the tournament was also marred by criticism as FIFA made the women play on astro-turf unlike the men’s tournament which was played entirely on grass).


5. Hillary Clinton Running for President

Hillary Rodham Clinton Signs Copies Of Her Book 'Hard Choices' In New York

One of the dominating stories at the beginning of the year was whether or not Hillary Clinton – who had once tried to run for president in 2007 – would run for president again. In an official announcement video in April, Clinton confirmed that she’d be running for president and that she wanted to be a “champion” for “everyday Americans”.

While Clinton hasn’t always been so progressive (she was once against same-sex marriage), nor is she regarded as progressive as (fellow presidential candidate) Bernie Sanders, she has lots of viewpoints that could do some good. Clinton wants to reform the criminal justice system, offer comprehensive immigration reform with a “pathway to citizenship”, she supports LGBT equality and she hopes to close the wage gap between men too.


6. The Rise of the ‘F’ Word

0d306685e21c856d_455817550.xxxlarge_2x

Feminism, by definition, is the “advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of equality of the sexes” and while there are still plenty of people who do still think that it’s about women having more rights than men, in 2015, lots of influential women revealed why they were feminists,

These include Harry Potter star Emma Watson, girl group Fifth Harmony whose ‘Worth it’ music video included pro-women quotes and Taylor Swift who has spoken out about misogyny in the media and has championed powerful women with her ‘girl squad’ of friends including Serena Williams, supermodel Karlie Kloss and singer and actress Selena Gomez. Admittedly, a lot of the feminist rhetoric this year has surrounded cis, white women and has completely ignored the struggles of trans women and women of colour but it’s a positive step forward at least.


7. The MTV VMAs 2015

2015 MTV Video Music Awards - Press Room

And finally, we had the MTV Video Music Awards 2015. Hosted by professional headline-grabber and former Disney star Miley Cyrus, the MTV VMAs 2015 were always going to get serious attention and while they offended just as much as they did good (one example is comedian Rebel Wilson making light of police brutality), they did give us plenty to talk about.

In the run up to the show, Nicki Minaj called out MTV for ignoring her Anaconda music video saying that the company only “celebrates women with very slim bodies” and overlooks the contributions of black women. Then Taylor Swift got offended and accused the rapper of pitting women against each other and Miley Cyrus then chimed in saying that Minaj’s comments were “not polite”.

During the show, Nicki Minaj called Miley Cyrus out, before criticising her again in the days after the show, saying that Miley enjoys black culture without wanting to address the issues that face black people. It led to some very important and very necessary discussions about race in the media.

Also at the MTV VMAs, Blac Chyna and Amber Rose went as each others dates dressed in outfits emblazoned with things they’d been called (e.g ‘whore’, ‘bitch’, and ‘golddigger’) seemingly in an effort to reclaim those slurs. As eye-catching as their getups were, again, they got people having serious conversations.


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