Viola Davis Battles "500-Pound Gorilla" Meryl Streep!

Exclusive! The Help star sounds off on her Oscar competition

Call it the clash of the Oscar titans.

Because, in our humble opinion, the true Best Actress in a Leading Role fight will come down to heavyweights Viola Davis and Meryl Streep. And while Meryl is the favorite to clinch the victory, we strongly think there could be an Oscar night surprise.

Very, very strongly.

So what does Viola herself think of going head-to-head with a 16-time Oscar nominee (and two-time winner)? And does Ms. Davis think she can be the one to dethrone The Iron Lady?

"It's completely frightening," Ms. Davis recently revealed to us. "However you think it's like in your head, that's exactly what it's like."

We get your point, V. Meryl is inarguably the greatest living actress we've got—that's sure to be intimidating to anyone.

But is her turn as Margaret Thatcher really worthy of her third golden-man statue? We think Davis has a serious (and we mean serious) chance of taking home the trophy (or even My Week With Marilyn's Michelle Williams by default).

Viola seems to disagree:

"I love the great Streep. I revere the great Streep. It's like wanting to do battle with a 500-pound gorilla of acting," she gushed to us about the possibility of scoring a win over Meryl. "I would never propose to do that. I'm honored just to be in the same company as her."

You're far too modest, Ms. Davis.

Especially since we think your standout performance in The Help was arguably more winning than Meryl doing—née impersonating—Margaret. And that's saying something, ‘cause we love some Streep, too.

But this time, in Iron, it more bordered a caricature of a great performance, we dare say. It was kinda like Meryl doing Anna Wintour (by way of The Devil Wears Prada, duh) doing Margaret Thatcher. And the movie was just too dull to distract from it.

Whereas Viola was so good that we almost forgot the flick made it look like Emma Stone started the civil rights movement…but just almost.

So we're ready to wager a bet: We think Viola Davis could (and should) come out on top Oscar night. Any takers?