Viola Davis is one award shy of achieving EGOT status, and at this year’s Grammy Awards, she could get it done. On Thursday night’s (Jan. 12) Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the actress made it clear that she’s not ashamed to campaign for herself.
“I have to tell you — the Grammy thing…I’m a serious actor. I am,” she told the late-night host. “I went to Juilliard [School of the Performing Arts], I feel it’s about the work. [But] it’s like my niece Annabella who had a meltdown at Circus Circus [Las Vegas] when she was 6 years old, snot dripping and crying, and all she was saying was, ‘I wanna win! I wanna win!’ In my brain with the Grammy, I’m like, ‘I wanna win! I wanna win!’”
Davis is nominated at this year’s Grammy Awards in the best audio book, narration & storytelling recording category for her audio book Finding Me. “There’s something in me that says that I deserve it,” she continued. “All of them have already won it!”
She’s right: The other four nominees in the category are all past Grammy winners. Questlove, nominated for Music Is History, is a six-time Grammy winner. Mel Brooks, nominated for All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business by Mel Brooks, is a three-time Grammy winner – as is Lin-Manuel Miranda, nominated for Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World. Jamie Foxx, who rounds out the category with Act Like You Got Some Sense, has won one Grammy.
Davis tells Kimmel that the Recording Academy “could throw me a bone.” Unfortunately, Davis’ Kimmel appearance came too late to have any impact on the vote: Grammy voting closed Jan. 4.
The actress has previously won a Primetime Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a dramatic series for How to Get Away With Murder (2015), an Oscar for best supporting actress for Fences (2016) and two Tonys – featured actress in a play for King Hedley II (2001) and lead actress in a play for Fences (2010). Should Davis win at the Grammys, she would be the 18th person to achieve EGOT status.
Watch Davis’ interview with Kimmel in the video above.
