Viola Davis Quotes

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Viola Davis

Profession : Actress

Birth : August 11, 1965

As an actor, every opportunity, every role, everything that I do is an opportunity to have someone have a human experience with my work. I don't just want it to be about a cute wardrobe and a high paycheck.

Viola Davis

I always talk to all the crew. I always make it pleasant. I always nurture a relationship that makes people feel like they're important, like they're a part of the collaboration. I feel that way about the young actors on set. I don't talk to them like I'm the mentor; I talk to them like they're my peers. And I learned that from Meryl Streep.

Viola Davis

Acting came from growing up in dysfunction. I mean, a lot of great times, but a lot of dysfunction.

Viola Davis

I have had issues in the past with the characters and the limitations of the characters and the structure of the narratives given to me as a woman of color.

Viola Davis

Turning 50 is making me reflect on my life in a way that's more compassionate and forgiving.

Viola Davis

You have to dare to make a choice that may be considered unorthodox in a role, but when you're working as if there are tons of people watching you, that's not necessarily a good thing.

Viola Davis

'Fences' is under the headline of the project of my lifetime. It is the most perfect and undeniably developed narrative that I've ever worked on.

Viola Davis

It feels like my hard work has paid off, but at the same time, I still have the impostor, you know, syndrome. I still feel like I'm going to wake up, and everybody's going to see me for the hack I am.

Viola Davis

I still feel like when I walk on the set, I'm starting from scratch, until I realize, 'OK, I do know what I'm doing. I'm human.'

Viola Davis

You're only reduced to a cliche if you don't humanize a character.

Viola Davis

Your job as an actor is to piece together whatever you've learned in your training, or whatever you have experienced in your life, to piece together a person.

Viola Davis

My grandmom worked as a maid for most of her life, and she worked in the tobacco and the cotton fields, whatever she could get.

Viola Davis

I don't see a lot of narratives written where a woman who looks like me gets to be beautiful and sexualized and upwardly mobile, middle-class, funny, quirky. They're very seldom written.

Viola Davis

I think sometimes what people miss about black people is that we're complicated, that we are indeed messy, that we do our best with what we've been given. We come into the world exactly like you. It's just that there are circumstances in the culture that are dictated and put on our lives that we have to fight against.

Viola Davis

I would like to say that I'm a walking poster board for feminism and women's liberation, but there are things that I do in my life that deeply, deeply fall short of being a statement for being a strong woman. I am flawed as much as anyone else.

Viola Davis

My grandmother's house was a one room shack.

Viola Davis

I'm the journeyman actor that you saw in one scene here, two scenes there. I've been eking out a living doing theater - Broadway, Off Broadway - film supporting roles, that I'm just excited to be a part of the conversation.

Viola Davis

I think women are very complicated human beings, and I think there's an oversimplification of women when you see them on screen.

Viola Davis

I feel the same way about Shondaland I feel about Africa and Greece. I feel pretty in both places. Men look at me like I'm a novelty, and women think I'm just cool. I feel absolutely at home immediately. I'm not altering myself to fit in. I'm walking in just as I am. And there are open arms stretched out to greet me.

Viola Davis

That's always the biggest surprise when people meet me: how buoyant I am and how fun and light I am.

Viola Davis