"How to Get Away with Murder" cast Viola Davis has claimed that playing her character is totally out of her comfort zone. However, she quickly added that the lead role is a welcome change.

In the TV series, Viola Davis plays Annalise Keating, a law professor and defense attorney, who teaches her students in Criminal Law 101 how to dissect a case. However, some of her students get caught up in a scandal which will test her character's resolve and professionalism.

"How to Get Away with Murder" cast Viola Davis told Us Weekly that when the role was presented to her, she immediately grabbed it before it's offered to somebody else.

"I love the fact that she's messy and mysterious. She's not necessarily nurturing and 'Come sit on my lap so I can talk to you, baby.' She's a woman. She's sexual. She's vulnerable. I wanted a character that took me out of my comfort zone," she said.

Amy Wallace of the New York Times wrote that "How to Get Away with Murder" cast Viola Davis "plays Keating as cerebral and alluring, a fierce taskmaster who uses her sex appeal to her advantage, with a handsome husband and a lover on the side. It's the kind of woman, in other words, that she has never gotten to play."

The series creator Pete Nowalk also revealed in the same article that "How to Get Away with Murder" cast Viola Davis had so many inputs on how to play Annalise Keating.

"She's pushed me on this. She's big on the fact that we all wear masks in public, depending on what's necessary. She wanted to show Annalise in private moments, when no one else was around," he said, adding that "How to Get Away with Murder" cast Viola Davis had wanted the series to show her character as being messy when nobody else was looking.