This story first appeared in a special Emmy issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.
At 80 years old, Cicely Tyson recently became one of the oldest people to win an acting Tony, for her 2013 performance as Ms. Carrie Watts in Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful -- a production featuring the play's first-ever all-black cast. Then she earned an Emmy nomination for the same role in Lifetime's TV movie adaptation of the 1940s-set story about an elderly Texas woman (Tyson) who wants to travel back to the small town where she grew up. Here, she reflects on her incredible year -- during which she joined a small and elite group of actors who have been Tony- and Emmy-nominated for the same character -- the kismet of landing the Bountiful role and how she feels about being a professional mentor to so many women of color in Hollywood.
Read More