Read Viola Davis's Emotional Oscar Acceptance Speech in Full

Lauren Alexis Fisher
Updated
Photo credit: Getty
Photo credit: Getty

From Harper's BAZAAR

Tonight, Viola Davis took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Fences. To accept her first Oscar award, the actress delivered a moving and extremely emotional speech that led to many tears both in the audience and from Davis herself.

Read Davis's inspiring and emotional speech in full below:

"Thank you to the academy. You know, there's one place that all the people with the greatest potential are gathered. One place and that's the graveyard. People ask me all the time, what kind of stories do you want to tell, Viola? And I say, exhume those bodies. Exhume those stories. The stories of the people who dreamed big and never saw those dreams to fruition. People who fell in love and lost. I became an artist and thank god I did because we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life.

So, here's to August Wilson, who exhumed and exalted the ordinary people. And to Bron Pictures, Paramount, Macro, Todd Black, Molly Allen for being the cheerleaders for a movie that is about people and words. And life and forgiveness and grace. And to Michael T. Williamson, Stephen Mckinley Henderson, for being the most wonderful artists I've ever worked with, and oh captain, my captain, Denzel Washington.

Thank you for putting two entities in the driving seat: August and God. And they served you well. And to Dan and May Ellis Davis, who were and are the center of my universe, the people who taught me good or bad how to fail, how to love, how to hold, how to lose. My parents-I'm so thankful that God chose you to bring me into this world, to my sisters, my sister Dolores, we were rich white women in the tea party games. Thank you for the imagination and to my husband and my daughter. My heart, you and genesis. You teach me every day how to live, how to love, I'm so glad that you are the foundation of my life. Thank you to the academy. Thank you."

Jimmy Kimmel later joked that Davis is now nominated for an Emmy Award for her acceptance speech. We're not opposed.

Watch the full speech below:

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