MAELLE KIDS MAGAZINE ISSUE #2 FEATURING SAG-AFTRA ACTRESS MILAN WILLIAMS
Milan Williams is known for her work with Lil Apple TV Show (Coming Soon), PBS Kids, Nickelodeon, A Crime to Remember, HBO’s Show Me A Hero, AT&T Commercials and more.
‘INSECURE’ starring Issa Rae, Molly (Yvonne Orji) follows the friendship of two modern-day black women and all of their uncomfortable experiences and racy tribulations.
What’s not yo love about Viola Davis? She’s talented, beautiful, history-making actress. She stars on one of the most thrilling dramas on TV, “How To Get Away With Murder.” Her red carpet game is on point. She’s making moves in front of the camera and behind the scenes. She’s outspoken, consistently sharing nuggets of wisdom and speaking truth to power when it comes to sexism, racism, and ageism within the industry.
In celebration of her 51st birthday on Aug. 11 below are some of the wisest, realest things Viola Davis has ever said:
1. On what Hollywood doesn’t get about black women: “The one thing I feel is lacking in Hollwyood today is an understanding of the beauty, the pwoer, the sexuality, the uniquesness, the humor of being a regular black woman.” – Essence
2. On criticism on her role as a maid un “The Help”: “The black artist cannot live in a revisionist place. The black artist can only tell the truth about humanity. Humanity is messy. People are messy… We, as African American artists, are more concerned with image and message and not execution. Which is why every time you see our images they’ve been watered down to a point where they are not realistic at all. It’s like all of our humanity has been washes out. We as artists cannot be politicians. We as artists can only be truth tellers.” – "The Tavis Smiley Show"
3. On being a role model: “A 25-year-old white actress who is training at Yale and Juilliard or SUNY Purchase or NYU today can look at a dozen white actresses who are working over age 40 in terrific roles. You can’t say that for a lot of young black girls. That’s why I’m doing what I’m doing.” – New York Times
4. On dealing with haters: “I don’t have any time to stay up all night worrying about what someone who doesn’t love me has to say about me.” – Oprah’s Oscar Special
5. On the key to true diversity in film: “You can’t shine if you have two lines in the background as a bus driver. You can only shine if you’re included in the narrative, and narratives start when you put pen to paper and you use your imagination. You just tell a story. That’s all you do. You tell a story. You don’t put any boundaries on it. It’s infinite and that’s the only way we can do what we do is that people use their imaginations so that we can be included in it.” – Essence
6. On honoring your individual womanhood: “Do not live someone else’s life and someone else’s idea of what womanhood is. Womanhood is you. Womanhood is everything that’s inside of you.” – BuzzFeed
7. On serving others: “They say to serve is to love. I think to serve is to heal, too” – Variety’s Power od Women Luncheon
8. On being yourself: “You can’t be hesitant about who you are.” – Playbill
9. On #OscarSoWhite controversy:
“You can change the Academy, but if there are no black films being produced, what is there to vote for?” – Viola Davis on the Academy Award’s diversity issue
10. On the obstacles for women of color in Hollywood: “The only thing that separates women of color from else is opportunity.” – 67th Emmy Awards speech
11. On learning to find pride in who you are “I believe that the privilege of a lifetime is being who you are, truly being who you are. And I’ve spent far too long apologizing for that-my age, my color, my lack of classical beauty-that now at the age of, well, at the age of 46, I’m very proud to be Viola, for whatever it’s worth.” – 2012 Crystal Award speech
12. On embracing her natural hair: “I took my wig off because I no longer wanted to apologize for who I am.” – Essence
13. On the importance of complex representation: “It’s time for people to see us-people of color-for what we really are: complicated.” – New York Times
14. On becoming a leading lady: “I will be bold enough to say, I have gotten so many wonderful film roles, but I’ve gotten even more film roles where I haven’t been the show. It’s like I’ve been invited to a really fabulous party, only to hold up the wall. I wanted to be the show. I wanted to have a character that kind of took me out of my comfort zone, and that character happened to be in a Shonda Rhime show. So I did the only smart thing any sensible actress would do: I took it.“ – Television Critics Association Press Tour
15. On the power of black women: "As black women, we’re always given these seemingly devasting experiences-experiences that could absolutely break us. But what the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master cals the butterfly. What we do as Black women is take the worst situations and create from that point.” – Essence
