Latest Viola Davis Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• People call me a theater actor, but I'm just an actor. But I tell my friends all the time - especially a lot that do theater and haven't done a lot of TV/film - that you have so much more control over your work onstage. When you go onstage, you can really see the difference between people who can really do it, and people who are just kind of pretending to do it. There is no editor, there's nothing that's going to stop the actor from showing what they can do unless it's not a well-written role.

  Viola Davis

  People, Over You, Done

  Source: film.avclub.com

• In film, it's up to the director to tell the story in whatever way he sees fit, and however you fit into that ultimate vision is where you fit in. So what you did on that stage, on that set, may not be what you ultimately see when you see the final product. And TV works so fast, it works so fast, it's just about product. The average TV show, one episode shoots eight, 10 days. That's it. You get three or four takes for a scene, and then it's over. But people do it for the money.

  Viola Davis

  People, Vision, Film

  Source: film.avclub.com

• When you're working as an actor, you don't think that when you get out of school, it's going to be so hard to get a job. Just to get a job. Any job. Whatsoever. You don't think that people are going to see you in a certain way. Uta Hagen said this, "In my life, I see myself as just this, you know, kind of flamboyant, kind of sexy middle-aged woman. And then I see myself onscreen, and I go 'Oh my God.'" And it's the same thing with me. I didn't see myself any different from my white counterparts in school. I just didn't!

  Viola Davis

  Sexy, School, Thinking

  Source: film.avclub.com

• 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

  Powerful, Hero, Thinking

  "Viola Davis ‘The Help’ Interview with Kam Williams". newsblaze.com. September 13, 2011.

• When I go home, I am a slug. I want to do everything completely opposite of what I do on the red carpet. I like to take off all my makeup, put on a t-shirt, be completely unassuming and just do stuff with my husband and my daughter.

  Viola Davis

  Daughter, Husband, Home

  Source: www.pittsburghurbanmedia.com

• Recognition has brought me more work, because your name suddenly comes to mind when some directors are trying to cast a character. And my stage work has specifically enabled people to have faith that I can handle a role, even when it's not specifically written for an African-American. So, I'd have to say that recognition brings work. A successful movie brings more work, and that been the biggest blessing.

  Viola Davis

  Character, Successful, Blessing

  Source: www.pittsburghurbanmedia.com

• I get so excited when my daughter says something new, which she is doing every day. I can leave the house for a few hours, come back and meet a totally different person. That's very exciting to me.

  Viola Davis

  Daughter, House, Different

• Do the work. Create the character, don't wing it and don't hope for an award or the Red Carpet. At the end of day the people who stay in the line the longest are the people who are good.

  Viola Davis

  Character, Awards, Wings

  Source: www.hollywoodchicago.com

• 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

  Dream, Thinking, Mind

  Source: www.hollywoodchicago.com

• You have to understand being an actress, and being an African American actress of a certain hue, I think that you have to be bold with your choices. Even when you're not bold with your choices, have people see it as bold.

  Viola Davis

  Thinking, People, Choices

  Source: www.hollywoodchicago.com

• You have two stark choices when you find yourself in a really desperate situation. You can either fold and cave-in to it or you can become really passionate about getting out of it. When you're really passionate, you're going to grab hold of every rope you see, and wrap them around your arms and legs to claw your way out. And that's the way I've felt in my life.

  Viola Davis

  Desperate Situations, Two, Choices

  Source: pittsburghurbanmedia.com

• 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. But when you hit a wall in your personal life, and you screw up, people don't give you a chance to navigate your way through it and tap into what's extraordinary about you.

  Viola Davis

  Wall, People, Giving

  Source: pittsburghurbanmedia.com

• Self-deprecation is not an answer to keeping one's balance. I think that it's very damaging.

  Viola Davis

  Thinking, Self, Balance

  Source: featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com

• I think that enjoying the fruits of one's labor is very different than arrogance. And when I was younger, I didn't know the difference. I thought that if you were gracious, that meant that you somehow were getting ahead of yourself. And I felt self-deprecation kept you balanced.

  Viola Davis

  Thinking, Differences, Self

  Source: featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com

• Just because I was 30 doesn't mean I was grown. God, I was such an idiot. I was an absolute idiot at 30. And I grew up.

  Viola Davis

  Mean, Idiot, Grew Up

  Source: featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com

• Actor is just a strange profession, it really is, that you could be in front of the same people for years, and all of a sudden one thing happens, and it finally clicks.

  Viola Davis

  Years, People, Actors

  Source: featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com

• You see all the young girls, and they're so skinny. I actually don't even twirl anymore. They say, "Twirl, let us see your back." I just tell 'em, "I do not twirl. If you want to see my back, when I walk away, you can take a picture of it. I'm not twirling." You know, I twirled once, and I almost fell. It looks ridiculous. So I said I'm not twirling anymore.

  Viola Davis

  Girl, Looks, Ems

  Source: featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com

• Every artist, true artist, struggles with an overwhelming sense of feeling like you're not worthy.

  Viola Davis

  Struggle, Artist, Feelings

  Source: featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com

• Even when I go shopping, I don't shop as a woman. The only time I shop is when I need something, and I'm in and out in less than 30 minutes, so I have no energy to look at 50 million gowns and styles and make sketches and think about heels. I'm not girly in that way. I'm relying on the stylist to do 99 percent of the work.

  Viola Davis

  Girly, Thinking, Shopping

  Source: featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com

• There are all these awards that you've never heard of, and you get nominated, and suddenly you're at these awards shows, so you really don't care if you win. You really don't. You're going there, you're getting dressed up. And then you get to the awards show, and you sit down. You walk the red carpet. Everybody loves you. It's great. You sit down, and all of a sudden your category comes up, and you get nervous. And it's a complicated emotion, because it's not like you absolutely want to win, but then you don't want to lose.

  Viola Davis

  Love You, Winning, Awards

  Source: featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com

• I don't think most people understand acting, even the people who call themselves savvy, even actors.

  Viola Davis

  Thinking, People, Acting

  Source: featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com

• Most actors don't understand acting. I think it's an art form that craft is out the window. I don't think people get it at all, most of the time. Or they get some of it, not all of it. If you get an Academy Award nomination, you think 95 percent of the profession is unemployed at any given time, most people will never even find work as an actor, and the ones who do will probably make $50,000 a year at the most if they're lucky. Some will never do Broadway. Some will never do a major role. And a really, really, really small percentage of them maybe will be nominated for a major award.

  Viola Davis

  Art, Thinking, Years

  Source: featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com

• If you're a boxer, you want to get the ring with a Mike Tyson or Muhammad Ali type. When you're acting, you want to get in with Meryl Streep, and that's what I did.

  Viola Davis

  Acting, Want, Boxers

  Source: featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com

• Each role has its own different challenges.

  Viola Davis

  Challenges, Different, Roles

  Source: featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com

• 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

  Thinking, Looks, Honest

  Source: featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com