Shows by Viola Davis and husband aim to give ‘the voiceless’ a voice

Julius Tennon came to town this past week to visit his wife, Viola Davis, who is here filming “Widows” for director and fellow Oscar winner Steve McQueen. Along with being an actor with more than 50 credits for a range of films and TV shows that include “Friday Night Lights,” “Batman v. Superman” and “Criminal Minds,” he worked with Davis to found a production company, JuVee Productions, seven years ago.

The project was “obviously out of the necessity for Viola’s career,” said Tennon, who quipped that prior to his wife’s career-changing role on “The Help,” her casting on television’s “How to Get Away With Murder” and her Oscar-winning performance in “Fences” this year, “Viola spent many years making filet mignon out of baloney.”

The performance choices presented to actors of color, he said, “often perpetuated the stereotypes we all know so well.” That said, Tennon added, “Viola always persevered. As she said it, ‘You have to problem-solve. No matter what role you’re given, you have to step in as an actor and make something out of it.’

“And, that’s what Viola’s always been doing.”

As part of a deal with JuVee, ABC this week launched the company’s “American KoKo” on abc.com and the ABC app available at abc.go.com/apps. Diarra Kilpatrick stars in 12 episodes, eight minutes each, based on her earlier, self-funded YouTube series. The show focuses on an employee (Kilpatrick) of the E.A.R. Agency — which stands for Everybody’s A Little Racist. The fictional organization’s role is to tackle tricky racial situations in today’s America.

Kilpatrick became known to Tennon when they starred together in a stage production of August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson.”

“When Diarra came to New York to see Viola [in the Broadway production of Wilson’s “Fences” with Denzel Washington], we got to talking about her idea for ‘American KoKo.’” Eventually, the deal with abc.com allowed JuVee to support Kilpatrick in expanding her original series.

According to Tennon, the program’s goal is “to be a dramedy — to both entertain and hopefully allow people to learn something too. At the end of the day, we’re all Homo sapiens. We breathe the same air, but often differences — like skin color — can make people look at life differently.”

Along with “American KoKo,” abc.com is also launching two other series featuring Chicago improv talent: “Ginger Snaps,” a short-form animated comedy starring Lauren Lapkus, and ” The Off Season,” with Rob Belushi, the son of Jim Belushi.

As for JuVee, the company produced the film “Lila and Eve” in 2015, with Davis co-starring with Jennifer Lopez. “We continued on with ‘Custody,’ ” said Tennon. While that film, starring Davis, Hayden Panettiere, Catalina Sandino Moreno and Ellyn Burstyn did not get a theatrical release, Tennon noted, “It was such an important project for me. Working with producers Lauren Versel [‘Arbitrage,’ ‘The Last Five Years’] and Katie Mustard provided such a great learning curve for me — really taught me how to be a good producer.”

While JuVee was established to provide work for Davis, Tennon pointed out that “we realized this couldn’t just be a mission for Viola. It had to be more than that. It had to provide a voice for the voiceless and for different groups of people not always represented the right way in films and television. … While diversity is good, inclusion is better. Opportunity is important, but more is needed. You need to give people access to projects that present stories about real people in the real world.”