Viola Davis Hits Back At ‘The First Lady’ Critics: “They Serve Absolutely No Purpose”

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Viola Davis has hit back at criticism of her portrayal of Michelle Obama in Showtime’s The First Lady by decrying critics as “absolutely serving no purpose.”In a hard-hitting interview with the BBC’s Today program, the Oscar-winner described the criticism of the way in which she portrays the former POTUS’ wife as “incredibly hurtful.”She used the opportunity to criticize film and TV critics more generally.“They feel like they’re  telling you what you don’t know like ‘oh you’re surrounded by people who lie to you and I’m going to be the person who leans in and tells you the truth’,” said Davis. “It gives them an opportunity to be cruel.”She added: “The thing about critics is they serve absolutely no purpose.”Davis, who won an Oscar for 2016’s Fences and has been nominated for Doubt, The Help and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, has come in for criticism for specifics about the way in which she plays Obama, such as her pose and facial expressions, but she said portraying someone so in the public eye was “almost impossible.”“People know how they walk, how they talk and how they hold their pearls, so it’s very difficult.”The First Lady launched earlier this month and stars Davis as Obama, Michelle Pfeiffer as Betty Ford and Gillian Anderson as Eleanor Roosevelt, with O-T Fagbenle portraying Barack Obama.Davis is also in the process of publicizing her new book, Finding Me, about growing up in poverty and abuse and working to get where she has today.

She writes candidly in the book about her own sexual assault and her mother’s abuse at the hands of her father.She told the BBC she is “literally in shock that I was able to achieve what I have in my life knowing my beginnings.”New and returning series on broadcast, cable and streamingSe