Viola Davis was on stage at the Screen Actors Guild Awards last week, announced Michael B. Jordan as the best actor winner.
It was an elated moment for the Sinners star. But unexpectedly, all the attention on the internet did not follow him.
Instead, it was on Davis, whose super-excited reaction to Jordan’s win became a meme and instantly went viral on the internet.
Now, reacting to the meme-worthy meme, she told Variety, “My husband [actor and producer Julius Tennon] and I have been laughing for two days.”
The line she yelled while opening the winning envelope was, “You are shining, Harold Loomis. “Shining like new money” was from the play Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. August Wilson wrote the play in 1984.
The Suicide Squad star explains that the line has significant meaning in that moment, particularly for Michael B. Jordan, whose career is on the rise.
“That line is constantly playing out in my mind. Because what it encapsulates is someone stepping into their purpose. It gives me goosebumps. And that’s how I felt about Michael B. Jordan.”
She continues, “Michael B. Jordan is an incredible human and an incredible leader,” she says. “It’s extremely exciting what he’s going to become. Now he’s getting into directing. and he is going to bring African American filmmaking into a beautiful place.”
Jordan, after winning best actor at the Actors Awards, is the hot favourite in the race for the Oscars.
