Viola Davis led cheers for Michael B. Jordan when he won an Actor Award for his performance in 'Sinners' on March 1
Credit: Getty(2)
NEED TO KNOW
- Viola Davis said in a new interview that she and her husband Julius Tennon “have been laughing” ever since she went viral for presenting Michael B. Jordan with his Actor Award win on Sunday, March 1
- Davis’ cheers for Jordan’s win have been viewed more than 1.8 million times in the video shared by Netflix’s official YouTube account
- “Michael B. Jordan is an incredible human and an incredible leader,” Davis said of the Sinners star
Viola Davis is reflecting on her instantly viral 2026 Actor Awards appearance.
Davis, 60, presented Michael B. Jordan with the Actor Awards' prize for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role for his performance on Sunday, March 1. Jordan's win for his performance in Sinners was something of a surprise, and Davis' emotional reaction to the moment went viral after she could be heard celebrating through a microphone on stage for several seconds. (A YouTube video of Jordan's awards win and acceptance speech shared by Netflix has been viewed more than 1.3 million times since March 1.)
“Me and my husband [actor and producer Julius Tennon] have been laughing for two days,” she told Variety of the video's virality in a recent interview, while discussing her debut novel Judge Stone.
Credit: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty
Davis also cleared up the phrase she spoke immediately after opening the envelope and learning Jordan had won the prize. The EGOT winner began to say, “You are shining, Harold Loomis. Shining like new money," — a line from an August Wilson play titled Joe Turner's Come and Gone that Davis once starred in — before she uttered Jordan's name and shouted in celebration instead of finishing the line.
“That line is constantly playing out in my mind, because what it encapsulates is someone stepping into their purpose," she told Variety. "It gives me goose bumps. And that’s how I felt about Michael B. Jordan.” In the interview, Davis additionally acknowledged that she is "a screamer, even at [her childrens'] soccer games. I'm the parent running up and down the field."
Credit: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty
Jordan won his first (and second) major prizes of this awards season when he won the Actor Award for his dual performance in Sinners as twins Smoke and Stack. The actor also shared a win with the rest of the film's cast when the movie won the award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. (Jordan and the cast of 2018's Black Panther shared a win for the latter award at the same ceremony in 2019 as well.)
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“Michael B. Jordan is an incredible human and an incredible leader. It’s extremely exciting what he’s going to become," Davis said of Jordan while speaking with Variety. "Now he’s getting into directing, and he is going to bring African American filmmaking into a beautiful place.”
This winter, Jordan also received nominations at the Golden Globes, Critics' Choice Awards and upcoming Academy Awards for his performance in Sinners. He is nominated alongside Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme), Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another), Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon) and Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent) for Best Actor at the 2026 Oscars on Sunday, March 15.
Sinners broke a record for the most Oscar nominations for a single film ever (16) in January.
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