‘General Hospital’ actress criticizes Viola Davis’ Emmy speech

LOS ANGELES — After Viola Davis made history on Sunday night at the Emmys by becoming the first black woman to win Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series and gave an empowering speech about the lack of opportunities for women of color, one soap star took to Twitter to criticize.

"General Hospital" actress Nancy Lee Grahn slammed the "How to Get Away With Murder" star after the awards show ended.

"I wish I loved #ViolaDavis Speech, but I thought she should have let @shondarhimes write it. #Emmys," she wrote.

Davis' stirring speech got a standing ovation from the crowd inside the Microsoft Theater on Sunday.

"The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is simply opportunity. You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there," the "HTGAWM" actress said. "So here's to all the writers, the awesome people -- people who have redefined what it means to be beautiful, to be sexy, to be a leading woman, to be black."

The soap star's now-deleted tweet reads, "Im a f--ing actress for 40 yrs. None of us get respect or opportunity we deserve. Emmys not venue 4 racial opportunity. ALL women belittled."

Grahn also criticized Davis for quoting Harriet Tubman during her acceptance speech.

After receiving nearly immediate backlash for her ramblings, Grahn sidestepped into attempted apologies.

"I apologize for my earlier tweets and now realize I need to check my own privilege," Grahn said in an extended tweet. "My intention was not to take this historic and important moment from Viola Davis or other women of color but I realize that my intention doesn't matter here because that is what I ended up doing. I learned a lot tonight and I admit that there are still some things I don't understand but I am trying to and will let this be a learning experience for me."