Behind the Scenes with Viola Davis for the 2017 Emmy's

Viola Davis is known for two things during awards season: stunning vibrant-colored gowns, and incredibly powerful and meaningful thank you-speeches. Those two things merged perfectly the first time we worked together.

September marked the 3rd season that I've worked with Viola for her awards shows manicures. The first time I manicured her in 2015, I was deeply focused on her nails as she read something aloud off a sheet of paper. Assuming it was a script for an upcoming upside of “How to Get Away With Murder”, I listened only sparsely (because privacy), picking up just a snippet of a Harriet Tubman quote. It wasn’t until much later that evening when she won the Emmy for "HTGAWM" and began speaking, that I realized what I had actually heard was her groundbreaking and powerful “Opportunity” speech! (read the full transcript here).

At this year's Emmy's, the Best Actress Nominee wore a custom bright rust gown by Zac Posen and 118 carats (!!) of Harry Winston diamonds. To complete the fall foliage palette, I manicured her using essie “Bordeaux”, a sexy, deep red wine lacquer.