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 DAVISOrdinary 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.
More Viola Davis Quotes
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The only thing that separates women of color from everyone else is opportunity.
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I think that you always want to gravitate towards people who absolutely are great at what they do and go for authenticity.
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If the opportunity is not out there for you to play it, then you don’t see it.
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That is a huge need for a lot of women, even in 2016. You can have the most ambitious career woman, and at the end of the day, she’s like, ‘I just want to be a mom.
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I think sometimes what people miss about black people is that we’re complicated.
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Relationships change us and make us grow.
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I’ve been in this business 25 years. I’ve been eking out a living doing Broadway, off-Broadway… I’ve seen the unemployment line a lot.
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It’s time for people to see us, people of colour, for what we really are: complicated.
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Tyler Perry’s ‘Madea Goes to Jail!’ Which, I have to tell you, of everything that I’ve ever done in my career, that’s the only thing that’s perked up the ears of my nieces and nephews. That is it, that’s done it for them. That made me a bona fide star in their eyes!
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I just look at women sometimes and I just want to ask them, “Do you know how fabulous you are?”
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When you pray, God puts people in your life to lead you when you cannot lead yourself.
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At the end of the day, nobody can tell you how to tackle failure or how to handle change. The world is very good at encouraging you to go along with the status quo and at basking in your successes.
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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.
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I am not a glam woman – this definitely is a mask I put on for the public.
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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.
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And “classically not beautiful” is a fancy term for saying ugly. And denouncing you. And erasing you.
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That’s how I digest it, ’cause I can press the fast-forward button and I know that I’m gonna have to continue to be an actor, continue to make choices, continue to perform in a show every week.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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We as artists cannot be politicians. We as artists can only be truth-tellers.
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[I listen to] “Uptown Funk”, Bruno Mars, sometimes even Nina Simone and Adele. Whatever comes up, whatever floats my boat, whatever makes me tap into something in me to just decompress – I listen to that.
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Every artist, true artist, struggles with an overwhelming sense of feeling like you’re not worthy.
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People are just not impressed by me at home.
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I do believe that there are African Americans who have thick accents. My mom has a thick accent; my relatives have thick accents. But sometimes you have to adjust when you go into the world of film, TV, theatre, in order to make it accessible to people.
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Any actor will tell you, as soon as your ego and your vanity come into the mix, it destroys your work. Completely destroys it.
VIOLA DAVIS