“I can’t believe I’m walking in a fashion show,” Viola Davis says, laughing. We’re talking hours before she takes on the catwalk of L’Oréal Paris’ annual fashion show, Le Défilé, in Paris, which brings together women of all backgrounds for an iconic celebration of empowerment and beauty in every sense of the word. “It’s like, diametrically opposed sometimes to who I am, which is so great, to get out of your comfort zone. Every year, I just enjoy it so much,” she adds. “It’s like a quick jolt of energy. It’s getting out of my comfort zone. It’s pushing myself. It’s feeling pretty.”
For Davis, who is a L'Oréal Paris ambassador, beauty has never been about performance; it’s about presence. “You know that saying, ‘beauty is as beauty does’? That’s how beauty plays a part in all the characters I play. The beauty of anyone is their authenticity,” she says. “All the characters I’ve played have been immensely beautiful to me in their unapologetic sort of self-possession. That’s what it is. It’s self-possession.”
