She grew up in rat-infested, condemned apartments — but from a young age she had a dream. Now, she's the first black actress to have won an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Tony. This is the story of Viola Davis.
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00:00I grew up in poverty, you know I grew up in apartments that were condemned and
00:07rat-infested, and I just always sort of wanted to be somebody, and I just wanted
00:16to be good at something.
00:31Do you think of yourself as a leader now?
00:35Yes I do, and I didn't before. I resisted it in myself because I happened to be a
00:39very shy person. Sometimes I could be very timid.
01:00Music
01:20Every time I look at the little girl I always thought, oh it's a cute outfit, but
01:25she was always hungry, she was always shy, she was always kind of in the background,
01:30but inside she had big dreams bursting.
01:55Music
02:13I want to be a great example for my daughter, I really do. I want to be a
02:17great example of passion, of hard work, of love, and always understanding.
02:47Music
03:06Every member of our staff is represented by a person of color, by the LGBTQ
03:12community. Every single narrative that comes through our doors that we accept
03:17have people of color, women are at the forefront of just about every project.
03:25Music
03:37It's important to me at this point in my maturity to just embrace who I am. I think
03:45that it's important at this point in my life to live an authentic life. I think that if
03:53you probably interviewed a lot of people who were towards the end of their lives, I think
03:58that that's what they would say, that they wish that they had lived their lives more
04:01authentically, and this is a part of it, wearing my hair.
04:05Music
04:24It's fabulous that she's mysterious, it's fabulous that she's messy, it's fabulous that
04:28she's sexy, it's fabulous that she's a mature woman over 40, because those are all adjectives
04:34that don't usually pertain to women of color.
04:38Music
04:44I feel great as a woman. I feel like I'm at a point where I'm owning my power, I'm owning
04:49my story, I'm owning my beauty, I'm owning my joy, I'm owning my hard work. I'm standing
05:00in front of people and I can say that I'm not the best of anything, but I deserve whatever
05:05I get because I've worked hard for it, and so I feel wonderful.
05:11Music
05:20It is through human dedication and effort that we move forward.
05:27Applause
05:31And then when we don't work, what happens is that time actually becomes an ally to the
05:40primitive forces of social stagnation.
05:43Music
05:54I just feel like the narratives that are created in Hollywood right now have got to
05:59become inclusive. They have got to reflect the changing world and the changing cultures.
06:07Music