Viola Davis Honored With the Cecil B. DeMille Award Ahead of 2025 Golden Globes

Before the year’s biggest movies and TV shows were honored at the 2025 Golden Globe Awards, Viola Davis was honored with the prestigious Cecil B. DeMille Award.

The actress, 59, received the honor on at the Golden Gala: A Celebration of Excellence at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, on Friday, January 3. The Cecil B. DeMille Award is named after the late director and recognizes outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment. Since its creation in 1952, the accolade has been given to 69 honorees, making Davis the 70th recipient.

“I was born into a life that just simply did not make sense. I didn’t fit in. … I just wanted to be somebody. I wanted some of those little gold nuggets,” Davis remarked while accepting the award, per Variety. “What I had was magic. I was curious. I could teleport — I could take myself out of this worthless world and relieve myself of it at times.”

Davis went on to state that her “curiosity” led her to start her acting journey. “I had enough curiosity to know that not only could I perform magic and inhabit these people, but I knew what they could give me,” she explained. “What could I find in all these lives that could somehow rain down those gold nuggets from Gordo and give to me and to make my life make sense.”

Davis ended her speech on a heartfelt note, stating that her younger self would be “squealing” at her accomplishments. “She’s standing behind me now, she’s pulling on my dress. She’s wearing the same red rubber boots that she wore rain or shine because they made her feel purdy,” she told attendees. “She’s squealing. She’s saying one thing. She says ‘Make them hear this.’ What she’s whispering is: I told you I was a magician.”

Davis sported a silky pink V-neck dress at the Golden Gala, which she followed up with a dramatic black gown with multi-colored sparkles on the 2025 Golden Globes red carpet on Sunday, January 5, at the Beverly Hilton. She posed for pics alongside her husband, Julius Tennon, who donned a classic black tux and white dress shirt. She took to the stage during the ceremony to present I’m Still Here‘s Fernanda Torres with the award for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama.

The Golden Globes announced Davis as the 2025 Cecil B. DeMille Award honoree in November 2024.

“Viola Davis is a luminary whose profound talent has continuously shifted the lens through which we see and understand film,” Helen Hoehne, president of the Golden Globes, said in a statement at the time. “Presenting her with the 2025 Cecil B. DeMille Award is not only an honor but a reflection of our admiration for her relentless dedication to her craft and her monumental impact on the industry. Viola’s courage in portraying complex, powerful characters has broken barriers and paved new paths, making her an emblem of excellence and an ideal recipient of this prestigious award.”

Davis reacted to the news via Instagram at the time, writing, “Thrilled! Overwhelmed! Honored! Thank you @GoldenGlobes. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️.”

Throughout her career, Davis has been nominated for seven Golden Globes, winning Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture for Fences in 2017. Her remaining nods were for her work in Doubt, The Help, How to Get Away With Murder, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and The Woman King.

Davis is also an EGOT winner, having earned an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and two Tony Awards. In January 2023, she opened up about her passion for her craft while explaining what the EGOT honor meant to her.

“I think that everybody wants their life to mean something,” she told Grammy.com. “I believe in the Cherokee birth blessing, which is, ‘May you live long enough to know why you were born.’ I do believe that you literally wanna blow a hole through this world in whatever way you can.”

She added: “A lot of people don’t know how to do that. A lot of people haven’t found that thing that they’re passionate about, that they can do. Some have. But we all are looking for that, blowing a hole through this earth before we leave it. I think about that in my work a lot. I really found that thing that I love to do. So I always wanna make it meaningful.”