Viola Davis Pulls At Heartstrings

This morning on "The Early Show," actress Viola Davis, best-known for her Academy Award nomination for the film "Doubt," stopped in to talk with co-anchor Harry Smith about her current role in the Broadway revival of August Wilson's "Fences."

Smith got emotional just watching a clip of Davis's performance and applauded Davis on her emotional, physical, and intellectual investment in playing this character.

When it comes to digging deep and going far into her emotions, Davis said, "It's necessary, it's required. It's a job requirement. You look at the role and you see what you have to do in the scene. And the goal is to be successful. And in order to be successful, you have to go there."

The play is set in Pittsburgh during the 1950s. Davis stars opposite Denzel Washington, who plays a baseball player who is overlooked despite his talent on the field. The two have what seems to be a good relationship that eventually unravels.

Though Washington had previously directed Davis in a movie called "Antoine Fisher," the two have never worked together on stage.

When asked what it felt to work together so intimately in front of an audience, Davis answered, "Terrifying… I'm playing this role; I've got to be kind of sexual, which is not my thing. I'm used to playing the kind of low-income mothers who are fully clothed and I'm fully clothed in this, too, but I don't usually show that side of my personality."

But Davis gets comfort from working with Washington, as well.

"What he does is he's just himself, which is very open, very funny. Open, I should emphasize open. Because that's a big word for an actor," explains Davis. "You can do whatever you want on that stage and you know Denzel is going to catch you because he's a great actor and he's a really wonderful human being."

Smith said the thing about this play is, "August Wilson wrote about race, but he wrote about people." The storyline touches the audience no matter what nationality; everyone can relate.

"Father, son, marriage, friendships. It speaks volumes about everything. And that's what I love about it. These characters are African-American, but it's inclusive," said Davis. "There is an idea that, when a play is done like an Arthur Miller and the characters are Caucasian, that it's inclusive, but even when the characters are black, it's the same thing. You can still relate. It's about the human condition. That's what it is."

Davis has appeared on Broadway three times and has just received her third Tony Nomination as Best Lead Actress for her role in "Fences." She won Best Featured Actress in a Play for 2001's "King Hedley II" and was nominated in 1996 for "Seven Guitars." All three were written by August Wilson.