The more I'm pushed in a position of leadership and I know I have to be the mouthpiece for so many other people who can't speak for themselves, the more confidence I'm gaining.
Viola DavisRead
Acting came from growing up in dysfunction. I mean, a lot of great times, but a lot of dysfunction.
Interpretation
Life experiences, particularly those filled with challenges, can inspire artistic expression.
Viola Davis reflects on how her experiences of growing up in a dysfunctional environment shaped her as an actor. Despite the struggles, she acknowledges that these diverse experiences contributed to her artistry, suggesting that both good and bad life moments can fuel creativity.
In practice
Sharing this quote during a panel discussion on the impact of personal history on creative work.
The more I'm pushed in a position of leadership and I know I have to be the mouthpiece for so many other people who can't speak for themselves, the more confidence I'm gaining.
What excites me is just taking some time to breathe in life. The mundane is very exciting.
I don't care if someone is new to acting or experienced in acting: you always learn something from them. It's just like people in life - whether they're young or middle-aged or old, you always learn something from someone.
I don't see a lot of narratives written where a woman who looks like me gets to be beautiful and sexualized and upwardly mobile, middle-class, funny, quirky. They're very seldom written.
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.
There's no prerequisites to worthiness. You're born worthy, and I think that's a message a lot of women need to hear.
Everybody was wearing rhinestones, all those sparkly clothes, and cowboy boots. I decided to wear a black shirt and pants and see if I could get by with it. I did and I've worn black clothes ever since.
As human beings, we aren't as individual as we'd like to believe we are. And I think that's what makes acting possible. Despite the fact that I have not experienced something, I have it in my human capacity to imagine it and to put myself in someone else's shoes, and to take someone else's circumstances personally.
Nobody wants to read about the honest lawyer down the street who does real estate loans and wills. If you want to sell books, you have to write about the interesting lawyers - the guys who steal all the money and take off. That's the fun stuff.
I love getting cheers. I love giving scares. Anything that really works with the audience makes me happy.
Never be ashamed to write a melody that people remember.
Let the labyrinth of wrinkles be furrowed in my brow with the red-hot iron of my own life, let my hair whiten and my step become vacillating, on condition that I can save the intelligence of my soul - let my unformed childhood soul, as it ages, assume the rational and esthetic forms of an architecture, let me learn just everything that others cannot teach me, what only life would be capable of marking deeply in my skin!
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