Usually when one of Madame Tussauds' new wax sculptures makes headlines, it's because the sculpture in question looks nothing like the person it's meant to depict, and instead some uncanny valley horror show.
But the new figure of Oscar winner Viola Davis is not one of those cases!
The Madame Tussauds in Hollywood recently unveiled their new wax likeness of the actor, and it's so accurate even Davis herself was blown away.
Davis stopped by the famed wax museum while promoting her new movie G20 and could not contain her surprise when she laid eyes on her likeness.
She exclaimed:
"You got everything right. I mean, she looks alive!"
The figure of Davis was modeled after her red carpet look at the 2017 Oscars, in which she wore a brilliant red Armani dress for her Oscar win for Best Supporting Actress in Fences.
Davis was shook by how spot-on Tussauds rendered the dress.
"This dress, I believe, is Armani. They got it perfectly. Just perfectly."
But Davis said that the excitement was about more than just the spot-on rendering. She said she hoped the wax figure would inspire young Black girls the way legendary Black actors of previous generations inspired her.
She explained:
"What my fantasy is, is they're gonna feel about her the same way little Viola would've felt when she looked at Ms. [Cicely] Tyson or Melba Moore. They're gonna feel seen."
During a visit to Late Night With Seth Myers, Davis also heaped praise on Tussaud's for nailing the intricacies of her features, which was important to her as a Black woman.
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She told Myers:
"I made sure they got the skin tone right. The teeth right. They got the ding in my nose right. They got my booty right. I got that bump."
"That's very important for Black girls. It's a Black girl thing. I said, 'Yeah, you gotta get the booty right.'"
On social media, people were feeling Davis' wax figure just as deeply as she was.
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Congrats Ms. Davis, and congrats to Madame Tussauds for going viral for all the right reasons this time!
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