Elle's 2016 Women in TV Cover Stars Might Be the Most Diverse in Years
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Elle magazine's annual Women in TV issue hits newsstands on Jan. 13, and the stunning ladies featured might just be the most diverse group in a while. Though 2015's iteration featured Lena Dunham on its cover and only three women of color in the entire issue, this year's crop of cover stars include gorgeous women of color including How to Get Away With Murder's Viola Davis, Quantico's Priyanka Chopra, and Taraji P. Henson, who recently took home the Golden Globe for best actress in a TV drama and hilariously passed out cookies to the crowd in honor of her epic Empire character, Cookie Lyon. Also featured on their own covers are Veep's Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Olivia Wilde, who stars in HBO's Vinyl. In the issue, each star opened up about her breakthrough small-screen role and what it means to be a woman in the television world. Keep reading to see all the beautiful photos from Elle's February issue and read each actress's inspiring quote.
Priyanka Chopra
"Why should a woman have to pick between global domination and having the love of her life?"
Viola Davis
"We've been fed a whole slew of lies about women." By TV standards, "if you are anywhere above a size 2, you're not having sex. You don't have sexual thoughts. You may not even have a vagina. And if you're of a certain age, you're off the table."
Olivia Wilde
"One day all these people were bowing down to me and throwing free clothes at me and telling me I was the best thing since sliced bread, and the next day. . . all of that disappeared. That was great for an 18-year-old to learn, and I will never again take the BS seriously."
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
"Go to the movies — how many good scripts are you really seeing out there? How many good, meaty roles are there for women within those scripts? Not tons of them. Right now there are so many [TV] shows on with strong, complicated, powerful, not-so-powerful, interesting human beings who are women. And I am thrilled to be playing one of them."
Taraji P. Henson
"It was very important to me that [Cookie Lyon] not be sassy and neck-rollin' and eye-bulgin' and attitude all the time. Everything she does is coming from a place of fighting for her family. That's why she's not a caricature."