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I really wanted to show [in fences] a marriage that is working. Not perfect, but working.

Viola Davis

I have been given a lot of roles that are downtrodden, mammy-ish.
VIOLA DAVIS

Colour Complicated People
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

Challenges Different Roles
And that’s what people want to see when they go to the theater. I believe at the end of the day, they want to see themselves – parts of their lives they can recognize. And I feel if I can achieve that, it’s pretty spectacular.
VIOLA DAVIS

Ifs Opportunity Play
I am not a glam woman – this definitely is a mask I put on for the public.
VIOLA DAVIS

Broadway Unemployment Years
Relationships change us and make us grow.
VIOLA DAVIS

Inspire Shapes Way
When your passion and drive are bigger than your fears, you just dive.
VIOLA DAVIS

Bigger Passion
One of the people I’ve always wanted to emulate in pursuing that dream was Meryl Streep, in terms of the different types of roles she’s been able to play and the number of different stories she’s been able to tell.
VIOLA DAVIS

Opportunity Successful Voice
We grew up in abject poverty. Acting, writing scripts and skits were a way of escaping our environment at a very young age.
VIOLA DAVIS

Dream Mind Thinking
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

Believe People The End Of The Day
I think sometimes you have to see a physical manifestation of your dream. Otherwise you have to hope, pray and try to conjure something in your mind to feel like it’s possible.
VIOLA DAVIS

Actors Ego Vanity
Do not live someone else’s life and someone else’s idea of what womanhood is. Womanhood is you. Womanhood is everything that’s inside of you.
VIOLA DAVIS

Ideas Womanhood
I would love to be remembered as a person who used her life to inspire others in any way, shape or form.
VIOLA DAVIS

Color Opportunity Winning
I am not a writer, but I feel that when our production company is successful, we’ll be able to give some young writers with fresh voices an opportunity to put their work out there.
VIOLA DAVIS

Home Not Impressed People
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

Art Differences Night
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.
VIOLA DAVIS

Fence Perfect Shows
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

Creativity Real Real Life
And “classically not beautiful” is a fancy term for saying ugly. And denouncing you. And erasing you.
VIOLA DAVIS

Womanhood
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. And I think that’s a powerful message in this time of political strife.
VIOLA DAVIS

Dark Fall Strong
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

Educational Niece Running
Cicely Tyson was my inspiration to become an actor.
VIOLA DAVIS

Bread Eating Hollywood
I talk to women all the time and try to impart wisdom.
VIOLA DAVIS

Ideas Opportunity School
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

Grows
The only thing that separates women of color from everyone else is opportunity.
VIOLA DAVIS

Feelings Skins Stress
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

Remakes Stars Thelma And Louise
I don’t have any time to stay up all night worrying about what someone who doesn’t love me has to say about me.
VIOLA DAVIS

Night Up All Night Worry
I needed to make my wig ogg because I no longer wanted to apologize for who I am
VIOLA DAVIS

Gifts And Talents Levels Want
That’s why there’s so much bad acting out there, because you could see actors watching themselves.
VIOLA DAVIS

Downtrodden Given Roles

I really wanted to show [in fences] a marriage that is working. Not perfect, but working.

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I really wanted to show [in fences] a marriage that is working. Not perfect, but working.

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Popular Authors

More Viola Davis Quotes