Viola Davis’ Next Role Will Nab Her ALL The Awards

It's only been five days since she won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Fences, but Viola Davis should start making room for a few more trophies. Variety is reporting that the actor just signed on to star alongside Julia Roberts in the film adaptation of Jodie Picoult's Small Great Things. According to Variety, the film centers on Ruth Jefferson, a "labor/delivery nurse who takes care of newborns at a Connecticut hospital." That may not seem like a big deal, but naturally, there's a twist. In the novel, Jefferson, a widow (her husband died while serving in Afghanistan) and mother to an honor student, is the only Black nurse in the hospital's maternity ward. The Washington Post explains that the hospital is located in a predominantly white area of the state, but that doesn't deter Jefferson from working there. "I treat people the way I want to be treated," Jefferson says in the novel, "based on their individual merits as human beings, not on their skin tone." During one of her shifts, Jefferson encounters Turk and Brittany Bauer, two white supremacists. They demand that Jefferson not touch their baby at all or care for it. To her surprise, the hospital agrees, but the baby dies in her care, and the Bauers take Jefferson to court. It sounds like exactly the sort of film that could land Davis back on the awards circuit. In addition to the star power from Davis and Roberts (who won an Academy Award for her performance in 2000's Erin Brockovich), Marc Platt is set to produce Small Great Things. You may have heard of his latest film, La La Land. Davis has also earned a Golden Globe and Tony for her performance in Fences. She's also been honored for her roles in The Help and How To Get Away With Murder.