Viola Davis: Two Movies and a Tony

The Oscar nominee (for 2008’s Doubt) recently won a best-actress Tony (for her role in the play Fences, opposite Denzel Washington) and has parts in the A-list movies Knight and Day and Eat Pray Love (out Aug. 13).

On her Tony win
”I haven’t had time to celebrate it yet. I always feel like I’m still in unemployed-actor mode from my days in New York. I can’t stop and bask in the glory. And now that I have this Tony, I really have to step up to the plate with the next role!”

On bonding with her Eat Pray Love costar Julia Roberts
”She’s someone you just click with. She’s not so into herself that she’s closed off to taking other people in. She inquires about your life. She’s interested in who you are. She’s concerned with your take as much as she is with her own.”

On having a career high at age 44
”When I first got out of Juilliard, I was 28 and came off as 45. It didn’t work. [Laughs] I had a more mature kind of aura. My deep voice, my look. I’m a character actress. And I think that’s the life of a character actor. You stay in the line, and eventually people begin to notice you.”