Viola Davis on Playing Michelle Obama, and Finding Her Voice as an Actor

Viola Davis on Playing Michelle Obama, and Finding Her Voice as an Actor

The Oscar-winning actor Viola Davis traces her career in Hollywood back to a single moment of inspiration from her childhood: watching Cicely Tyson star in the 1974 movie “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.” “I saw excellence and craft, and I saw transformation,” Davis tells David Remnick. “And more importantly, what it planted in me is that seed of—literally—I am not defined by the boundaries of my life.” In a new memoir, “Finding Me,” Davis writes of a difficult upbringing in Rhode Island, marked by poverty and an abusive father. She pursued her dream of attending the prestigious Juilliard School, but felt alienated by a white-focussed approach that left little room for her background or identity. She talks with Remnick about how she grew past these early challenges, the lingering impostor syndrome that many successful people experience, and how she prepared to play Michelle Obama in the series “The First Lady.” Plus, the cartoonist Liana Finck, a regular presence in The New Yorker, explains how a ride on the Long Island Rail Road gets her creative ideas flowing; she can work among people without anyone talking to her.

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How Tucker Carlson Became the Prophet of MAGA

How Tucker Carlson Became the Prophet of MAGA

Tucker Carlson has long been a standard-bearer for far-right views, such as the racist conspiracy theory known as the “great replacement.” He recently did a chatty interview with the white supremacist...

23 Jan 27min

How Betting Took Over Sports

How Betting Took Over Sports

Danny Funt has been reporting on the gambling boom for The New Yorker, which has generated startling recent headlines, including the arrest of a former N.B.A. coach and the indictment of two M.L.B. pi...

20 Jan 17min

With the Podcast “I’ve Had It,” Jennifer Welch Goes “Dark Woke” on Politics

With the Podcast “I’ve Had It,” Jennifer Welch Goes “Dark Woke” on Politics

Before becoming a podcaster, Jennifer Welch had a successful career as an interior designer and co-starred in a reality show on Bravo. But, since 2022, she and Angie Sullivan, her co-host on the podca...

16 Jan 32min

Does Every Marriage Need a Prenup?

Does Every Marriage Need a Prenup?

Prenups have gone from a tool of the ultra-wealthy, carrying a whiff of scandal, to a more widespread request for aspirational young couples with few assets. Wilson spoke with celebrity divorce attorn...

13 Jan 18min

Trump’s New Brand of Imperialism

Trump’s New Brand of Imperialism

U.S. intervention in other countries, whether overt or covert, is by no means new, and Daniel Immerwahr notes that the open embrace of expansionism by the President and associates such as Stephen Mill...

9 Jan 31min

Demi Moore Talks with Jia Tolentino

Demi Moore Talks with Jia Tolentino

Since she reëmerged as a star in the 2024 film “The Substance,” Demi Moore has been very busy. She has a major role in the current season of Taylor Sheridan’s “Landman” series, and she has two highly ...

6 Jan 22min

Salsa Star Rubén Blades on Acting, Politics, and the Power of Music

Salsa Star Rubén Blades on Acting, Politics, and the Power of Music

For roughly half a century, the singer Rubén Blades has been spreading the gospel of salsa music to every corner of the globe. “You could say that Blades did for salsa what Bob Marley did for reggae,”...

2 Jan 28min

Elaine Pagels on “The Historical Mystery of Jesus”

Elaine Pagels on “The Historical Mystery of Jesus”

Thirty years ago, David Remnick published “The Devil Problem,” a Profile of the religion scholar Elaine Pagels—a scholar of early Christianity who had also, improbably, become a best-selling author wi...

30 Dec 202526min

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