Name them Aunt Vi, ALL of them…
Viola Davis’ emotional memoir Finding Me is set to hit shelves soon and the five-time Emmy-award-winner is candidly speaking on tribulations she’s endured.
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The actresses’ road to fame was no easy feat, as she and her family struggled to make ends meet in Central Falls, Rhode Island. Davis recalled being in such deep poverty, that she and her siblings had to dumpster dive for food as neighborhood bullies hurled rocks at them and spewed racist remarks about their skin color.
The key is to survive,” the 56-year-old Oscar-winner told PEOPLE while discussing the forthcoming memoir this week.
“I did what was at my hand to do at 8 years old. I fought. And that fighting served me because I’m still on my feet.”
Elsewhere in the book, the Julliard alum reflects on her difficult experiences with colorism. During one particular incident, the actress said she overheard other Black celebs in Hollywood commenting on how “she wasn’t pretty enough” to pull off the role of the beautiful and bold lawyer Annalise Keating, a role she would eventually land an Emmy award for in 2015.
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Even with all her success, there was something she just “couldn’t shake” about the insensitive comment, Davis explains in the book, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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The experience was unlike the other colorist, racist, and anti-Black criticism the then 47-year-old star had endured in that she “couldn’t shake” this feedback.
While speaking to The Wrap in 2015, Davis spoke more about the issue of colorism in Hollywood, noting how the “paper-bag test” was “still very much alive and kicking,” in the industry.
“That’s the whole racial aspect of colorism: If you are darker than a paper bag, then you are not sexy, you are not a woman, you shouldn’t be in the realm of anything that men should desire,” Davis continued, before adding how her character Annalise revolutionized the game for other actresses of darker hues.
“I’ve never seen a character like Annalise Keating played by someone who looks like me. My age, my hue, my sex,” the SAG award recipient argued. “She is a woman who absolutely culminates the full spectrum of humanity: our askew sexuality, our askew maternal instincts. She’s all of that, and she’s a dark-skin black woman.”
The page-turning book also details the How To Get Away With Murder star’s difficult relationship with her abusive father. Davis recalled the physical abuse her mother, Mae Alice, endured growing up, though he later “changed” following his pancreatic cancer diagnosis. Sadly, Davis’ father passed away from the disease in 2006.
“My mom said he apologized to her every single day. Every single day, he rubbed her feet. Forgiveness is not pretty,” she continued. “Sometimes people don’t understand that life is not a Thursday-night lineup on ABC. It is messy. He did hurt me then, but love and forgiveness can operate on the same plane as anger.”
Davis, who’s gearing up to make her debut as Michelle Obama in Showtime’s highly anticipated drama series The First Lady, made amends with her dad before his passing.
“I wanted to love my dad,” she said. “And here’s the thing: My dad loved me. I saw it. I felt it. I received it, and I took it. For me, that’s a much better gift and less of a burden than going through my entire life carrying that big, heavy weight of who he used to be and what he used to do. That’s my choice. That’s my legacy: forgiving my dad.”
Finding Me: A Memoir will release on April 26. Will you be reading?
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