“‘It has just been such a journey. I just EGOT!’ ”
That was acting legend Viola Davis accepting her first Grammy on Sunday — in the audio book, narration and storytelling recording category — for narrating the audio versions of her 2022 memoir “Finding Me.”
This Grammy was the final award that Davis, 57, needed to clinch coveted EGOT status — that is, winning an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony award over one’s career.
Just 18 people (including Davis) have achieved EGOT status, and Davis is only the third Black woman — and fourth Black person, period — to claim the honor, alongside Whoopi Goldberg, John Legend and Jennifer Hudson.
“Oh my God,” Davis said while accepting the award on Sunday afternoon, just hours before the primetime Grammy Awards broadcast was set to begin. “I wrote this book to honor the 6-year-old Viola, to honor her, to honor her life, her joy, her trauma, her everything.”
Previously, Davis scored the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2017 for playing Rose Maxson in the film adaptation of “Fences.” She also won a Tony award for best lead actress in a play for the stage production of “Fences,” as well as a Tony for best featured actress in a play for “King Hedley II” in 2001.
And she won her Emmy playing scandalous criminal defense attorney and law professor Annalise Keating in “How to Get Away with Murder.”
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Davis was also set to be one of the presenters at the 65th Grammy Awards on Sunday, which was being hosted by Trevor Noah.