Good Hang with Amy Poehler

Viola Davis

March 17, 2026

Key Takeaways Copied to clipboard!

  • Viola Davis's husband, Julius Tennon, emphasizes that a strong relationship foundation relies on the man knowing himself, regardless of his partner's professional success. 
  • Viola Davis and Julius Tennon met on the set of *City of Angels* in 1999 while she was playing a nurse and he was an anesthesiologist, leading to their nearly 27-year relationship. 
  • Viola Davis views memorizing Shakespeare as less difficult than the pressure of delivering lines correctly while maintaining eye contact with a scene partner, citing an instance where Meryl Streep repeatedly forgot a line during the filming of *Doubt*. 
  • Viola Davis jumped out of a plane in Oahu, Hawaii, at age 56 or 57, specifically to try and be 'cool' for her teenage daughter. 
  • Viola Davis and her husband, Julius Tennon, share a deeply loving and humorous relationship characterized by mutual support, exemplified by Julius encouraging her to take the role that won her a Tony Award despite her initial doubts, and supporting her through financial vulnerability. 
  • The best part of being in one's 60s, according to Viola Davis, is realizing that one's life is finally their own, focusing only on who they love, who loves them, and what they leave behind. 

Segments

Julius Tennon Interview Start
Copied to clipboard!
(00:00:48)
  • Key Takeaway: Julius Tennon is the first and only spouse allowed on Good Hang with Amy Poehler so far.
  • Summary: Amy Poehler introduces Julius Tennon, Viola Davis’s husband and producing partner, noting he is the only spouse featured on the show. Tennon shares that he and Davis met in 1999 on the set of City of Angels while he was playing an anesthesiologist and she was Nurse Lynette Peeler. They began dating after he gave her his card, leading to their first date a month later.
Relationship Philosophy and Success
Copied to clipboard!
(00:05:28)
  • Key Takeaway: Julius Tennon attributes his successful marriage to prioritizing self-knowledge and supporting his partner’s career without letting it affect his own identity.
  • Summary: Tennon explained that supporting one another equally is crucial, especially when one partner’s career takes off, as was the case with Viola Davis. He asserts that a man must know who he is to handle a powerful woman, ensuring their roles are supportive rather than competitive. They established early on that their careers are what they do, not who they fundamentally are.
The Woman King Production
Copied to clipboard!
(00:07:54)
  • Key Takeaway: Producing The Woman King was a challenging but meaningful journey because the film represented a type of story never before made in Hollywood.
  • Summary: Tennon described making The Woman King as a great journey that meant a lot to him and Davis because the concept of an all-female army unit film had not been done in Hollywood. They committed to making the movie despite financial challenges, believing it would have a lasting cultural impact, which was later validated when AFI selected it as one of the year’s great films.
Julius Tennon’s Background and Vibe
Copied to clipboard!
(00:09:04)
  • Key Takeaway: Julius Tennon, an ex-football player, was inspired to pursue acting by observing older actors like Jim Brown and Fred Williamson.
  • Summary: Tennon confirmed he is an ex-football player who never coached but always loved the arts, starting with poetry. He listed idols like Jim Brown, Bernie Casey, and Fred Williamson as inspirations for pursuing acting. Amy Poehler noted that Tennon possesses a distinct ‘coach vibe’ and effectively uses her name during conversation.
Advice for Interviewing Viola Davis
Copied to clipboard!
(00:09:57)
  • Key Takeaway: Julius Tennon advised Amy Poehler to ask Viola Davis about the origin of the pet name ‘Zuni’ and their first theatrical experience, ‘Shadow of a Gunman,’ to avoid mundane topics.
  • Summary: Tennon explained that ‘Zuni’ is a pet name derived from the endearing character in the animated cartoon Fireball XL5, which he calls Viola because he loves both the character and her. He suggested asking about their first theatrical experience, Shadow of a Gunman, as a way to prompt interesting stories beyond standard project questions.
Viola Davis’s EGOT Status
Copied to clipboard!
(00:13:26)
  • Key Takeaway: Viola Davis was unaware she was one step away from achieving EGOT status until after winning the Oscar for Fences.
  • Summary: Davis expressed happiness about being on the show, feeling like she was emerging from hibernation after a period of not working. She revealed that the EGOT status was not something she actively pursued or thought about until someone pointed out she only needed a Grammy to complete the set after her Oscar win for Fences.
Ambition and Spirit of Excellence
Copied to clipboard!
(00:14:50)
  • Key Takeaway: Viola Davis admires young actors like Timothée Chalamet who possess a ‘spirit of excellence’ and are openly ambitious about self-improvement.
  • Summary: Davis praised Timothée Chalamet’s speech, noting he demonstrated a spirit of excellence rather than mistaking presence for mediocrity. She appreciates young actors who are openly ambitious and articulate their desire to achieve the best from themselves and others. Davis stated she likes young people who have ‘attitude’ or self-possession because the world will inevitably challenge them.
East Coast Directness and Accents
Copied to clipboard!
(00:16:58)
  • Key Takeaway: Growing up on the East Coast instilled a directness in both speakers, which sometimes surfaces through their regional accents during emotional moments.
  • Summary: Both Davis and Poehler, having grown up in Rhode Island and Boston respectively, noted that their East Coast accents emerge when they are angry or excited, despite training to eliminate them. Davis recounted being ’traumatized’ at Juilliard by exercises like having a pencil in her mouth to correct her articulation, which she now realizes was a beautiful part of her origin.
Origin of Acting Desire
Copied to clipboard!
(00:21:56)
  • Key Takeaway: Viola Davis pinpoints winning a skit contest at Jenks Park at age eight as the moment she realized her potential, overcoming severe shyness.
  • Summary: Davis, whose parents were school teachers, did not initially know acting was a viable job but received positive feedback in school plays. She believes the pivotal moment was winning a skit contest where she played an ‘ooe kid’ from That’s My Mama, which was significant because she was brutally shy and unable to speak publicly otherwise.
The Difficulty of Love Scenes
Copied to clipboard!
(00:30:31)
  • Key Takeaway: Viola Davis finds love scenes the most difficult scenes to perform, often preferring to use that time to go to the bathroom due to the artificiality involved.
  • Summary: Davis expressed a strong aversion to love scenes, stating she cannot stand watching or doing them, and joked that she will only do them if the partner has a large gut so the scene focuses on character rather than physique. She recounted a particularly unsexy experience on How to Get Away with Murder where makeup was smeared everywhere and an actor was slapping his thigh with a scrub brush to simulate touching her.
August Wilson’s Importance
Copied to clipboard!
(00:34:43)
  • Key Takeaway: August Wilson’s work is vital to Viola Davis because his writing captures the authentic cadences and speech patterns of her family and community.
  • Summary: Davis values August Wilson because he writes about Black people using their authentic cadences, mirroring how her parents spoke. This contrasts with roles like Blanche Du Bois, which required her to suppress her grounded self to portray a fragile Southern woman. With Wilson, she can do the necessary work without having to transform her inherent self.
Early Career and Unemployment
Copied to clipboard!
(00:38:02)
  • Key Takeaway: Viola Davis felt she had ‘made it’ as an actor when she was consistently working regional theater jobs and qualifying for unemployment benefits.
  • Summary: Davis built a substantial body of work in regional theaters like the Guthrie and Huntington before achieving widespread fame. She considered herself successful when she could earn $650 a week and then rely on unemployment benefits, which she diligently called in every Sunday. She stressed that actors must put in the hours to develop a process.
Notes on Writing and Acting
Copied to clipboard!
(00:39:41)
  • Key Takeaway: Actors should never criticize other actors’ performances but must offer writers constructive criticism that includes a viable solution for fixing the work.
  • Summary: Davis noted a professional rule: never criticize another actor’s performance, as that is the director’s role. However, if an actor has a criticism of the writing, they must explain why the scene isn’t working and know how to fix it, which she observes most people cannot do.
The Woman King Context and Training
Copied to clipboard!
(00:42:53)
  • Key Takeaway: Viola Davis trained five hours daily for The Woman King, which allowed her to access a powerful, capable feeling in her body previously suppressed by societal expectations of female beauty.
  • Summary: The film is based on the Agojie, an all-female army unit from the Agojie tribe in Dahomey, West Africa, around 1854. Davis trained for months in hand-to-hand combat, sweating out multiple shirts daily during intense weightlifting and running sessions. This physical transformation allowed her to walk into rooms feeling totally in her body, capable and strong, rather than conforming to the female body’s conditioning to be thin and tied to male desirability.
Judge Stone Novel Details
Copied to clipboard!
(00:58:13)
  • Key Takeaway: Viola Davis’s new book with James Patterson, Judge Stone, centers on a 13-year-old girl in Alabama who is raped, has an abortion, and the doctor faces a murder trial.
  • Summary: The novel Judge Stone is described as pulsating and comparable to To Kill a Mockingbird due to its intense courtroom drama. The plot focuses on Nova, a 13-year-old in Union Springs, Alabama, who undergoes an abortion due to rape, leading to the doctor being tried for murder under strict state laws.
Parenting Teens and Being Uncool
Copied to clipboard!
(00:59:37)
  • Key Takeaway: Viola Davis believes parents should not strive to be ‘cool’ to their teenagers, as that dynamic is inherently strange and uncool.
  • Summary: Davis, who has a 15-year-old, stated that feeling uncool in front of one’s teen child is normal. She believes that if a parent is trying too hard to be cool, it often results in an awkward situation. She mentioned jumping out of a plane in Hawaii specifically to try and be cool for her daughter.
Viola’s Skydiving Story
Copied to clipboard!
(00:59:00)
  • Key Takeaway: Viola Davis jumped out of a plane in Hawaii to impress her daughter, who subsequently asked if she could have her wigs and money if she died.
  • Summary: Viola Davis jumped out of a plane in Oahu, Hawaii, around age 56 or 57 to try and be cool for her daughter. During the fall, she was focused on the experience and the instructor’s mundane questions about theater versus film. Her daughter’s request upon hearing about the plan was to inherit her wigs and money if the jump resulted in death.
Julius Tennon Relationship Dynamics
Copied to clipboard!
(01:02:10)
  • Key Takeaway: Julius Tennon is described as hysterical and capable of odd behavior, such as once believing an attic intruder stole his saltine crackers, which Viola supported by joining the search with a baseball bat.
  • Summary: Amy Poehler notes that Viola and Julius’s relationship seems aspirational due to their visible affection and laughter. Viola shared an anecdote where Julius became convinced an intruder stole his saltine crackers, leading him to search the attic with a baseball bat. Viola supported his delusion by joining the search until the crackers were found near the tuna fish.
Julius’s Support and Love
Copied to clipboard!
(01:04:46)
  • Key Takeaway: Julius Tennon deeply celebrates Viola Davis’s wins and provides essential support, having previously told her to take the King Hedley II role despite her financial insecurity.
  • Summary: Julius is highlighted as a partner who truly sees Viola and celebrates her successes, a quality many women desire. He previously insisted she take the role in King Hedley II when she felt it wasn’t good enough for her, bluntly stating she needed the job because they weren’t making money. He also immediately accepted her confession about having a credit score of 500, telling her he already knew and offering to use his credit.
Julius’s Quirky Questions
Copied to clipboard!
(01:06:44)
  • Key Takeaway: Julius Tennon asked Viola Davis if she looked like Zuni, a puppet character from a Saturday morning cartoon he watched as a child, which Viola found bizarre.
  • Summary: Julius provided two strange questions for Viola to answer, one concerning the puppet character Zuni from a cartoon he watched growing up. Zuni is described as having big lips and eyes, resembling a mix between a ferret and a sloth, which Julius thought Viola resembled. The second question involved a story about Julius falling asleep during a production of Shadow of a Gunman on one of their first dates.
Embracing the 60s
Copied to clipboard!
(01:13:58)
  • Key Takeaway: The best aspect of being in one’s 60s is the realization that life is finally one’s own, focusing solely on love and legacy, free from past societal pressures.
  • Summary: Viola Davis is loving her 50s and looks forward to her 60s, stating that in this decade, one’s life truly belongs to them. She referenced a quote suggesting hell is the meeting of who you became versus who you could have been. For her, the 60s represent the freedom to focus only on who she loves, who loves her, and what she leaves behind.
Cicely Tyson Tribute
Copied to clipboard!
(01:16:24)
  • Key Takeaway: Host Amy Poehler paid tribute to the late actress Cicely Tyson, noting her profound influence on Viola Davis and her extensive career spanning from Roots to How to Get Away with Murder.
  • Summary: Amy Poehler dedicated a segment to Cicely Tyson, whom Viola Davis deeply reveres and was influenced by. Tyson’s career spanned a vast amount of American history, including her role as Kunta Kinte’s mother in Roots. Listeners are encouraged to check out Tyson’s work across stage, television, and film.