That’s why there’s so much bad acting out there, because you could see actors watching themselves.
VIOLA DAVISLet me tell you something: The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.
More Viola Davis Quotes
-
-
If the opportunity is not out there for you to play it, then you don’t see it.
VIOLA DAVIS -
Creativity only resonates if you infuse real life into the work.
VIOLA DAVIS -
I want my work to reflect my level of gifts and talent.
VIOLA DAVIS -
I talk to women all the time and try to impart wisdom.
VIOLA DAVIS -
They say the two most important days in a person’s life were the day you were born and the day you discover why you were born.
VIOLA DAVIS -
I’ve always just simply seen myself as an actor. And I believe that it serves me well to just think in terms of my craft. If hypothetically, I saw myself only as a sex symbol, or as some other limited stereotype, I think I would feel like a complete failure.
VIOLA DAVIS -
Even when I get the fried-chicken special of the day, I have to dig into it like it’s filet mignon.
VIOLA DAVIS -
As an artist, you’ve got to see the mess. That’s what we do. We get a human being, and it’s like putting together a puzzle. And the puzzle has got to be a mixture, a multifaceted mixture of human emotions, and not all of it is going to be pretty.
VIOLA DAVIS -
In my mind, I see a line. And over that line, I see green fields and lovely flowers and beautiful, white women with their arms stretched out to me over that line, but I can’t seem to get there now. I can’t seem to get over that line.
VIOLA DAVIS -
The only thing that separates women of color from everyone else is opportunity.
VIOLA DAVIS -
I needed to make my wig ogg because I no longer wanted to apologize for who I am
VIOLA DAVIS -
I’m a sitting duck. No, seriously, I mean I wish I could say more, but I’m a sitting duck because I can’t get ahead of them [cyber experts]. They’re far ahead of me. That’s what I learned: how vulnerable we are. It’s a big, silent monster out there. That’s what it feels like.
VIOLA DAVIS -
Self-deprecation is not an answer to keeping one’s balance. I think that it’s very damaging.
VIOLA DAVIS -
It’s time for people to see us, people of colour, for what we really are: complicated.
VIOLA DAVIS -
I just look at women sometimes and I just want to ask them, “Do you know how fabulous you are?”
VIOLA DAVIS -
I think that you always want to gravitate towards people who absolutely are great at what they do and go for authenticity.
VIOLA DAVIS -
I think that what happens so often on screen is high-stake moments tends to look too pretty. And I just don’t think it’s honest.
VIOLA DAVIS -
Knowing the only way out is education, even if you don’t have parents that are extraordinarily wealthy. I understand that I have to be an active participant in [my daughter’s] education in order for her to thrive in the world.
VIOLA DAVIS -
Sometimes you see how humanity can rise above any kind of cultural ills and hate that a person’s capacity to love and communicate and forgive can be bigger than anything else.
VIOLA DAVIS -
Sometimes you take a job for the money, sometimes you take it for the location, sometimes you take it for the script; there are just a number of reasons, and ultimately what you see is the whole landscape of it. But I can tell you from behind the scenes – that’s what it is, as an actor.
VIOLA DAVIS -
Ultimately, it’s not your job, as an actress, to satisfy people’s expectations or image of who you should be. Even in your life, you are just who you are.
VIOLA DAVIS -
Let me tell you something: The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.
VIOLA DAVIS -
Anything can be achieved with a good, healthy dose of courage.
VIOLA DAVIS -
All you really need to do is shift people just a tiny bit for change to happen. It doesn’t have to be huge and humongous.
VIOLA DAVIS -
And “classically not beautiful” is a fancy term for saying ugly. And denouncing you. And erasing you.
VIOLA DAVIS -
Ordinary people who are just kind of just going about their lives are transformed into heroes because they have the courage to put their voices out there. I think that’s a powerful message in this time of political strife.
VIOLA DAVIS