Viola Davis has said ‘being branded ugly’ ‘defined’ her growing up.
The Oscar-winning actress, 56, would put on a ‘mask of bravery’ during her years of success but ‘really believed’ she was ugly after childhood bullying.
Viola’s revelation comes as she , 58, for the Showtime anthology First Lady, which tells the story of presidential couples throughout history.
The How To Get Away With Murder star has bagged top awards for stage and screen in her career thus far, including two Tonys and a Bafta.
However, she shared with during a Netflix special how she would run home to avoid school bullies abusing her every day.
Viola said: ‘As soon as that bell rang I would run home because I knew the same eight to nine boys were going to be chasing me – calling me Black, ugly – and they would pick up anything they could find on the side of the road: bricks, sticks.’
‘The level of hatred when they were saying those words, that really is the memory that defined me,’ she added.
‘As I went through my life, as much as I put on that mask of bravery, confidence, being that boss woman that people talk about… but inside was the damaged little girl that really, really believed that she was ugly, that she was not enough.
‘That’s what defined me more than anything else.’
Viola added that, while she wishes the story was ‘different,’ she believes what happened to her was ‘so powerful.’
She started going to therapy at the age of 28 or 29, at which point she decided that she ‘wanted it to be different.’
Viola grew up in Central Falls, Rhode Island, where she said her family often had no hot water, gas or electricity and rats would roam the building.
She described it as ‘a life of abject poverty’ and ‘a life of deprivation,’ as her house had ‘plaster coming off the walls,’ she was ‘always hungry,’ never had a phone and the ‘plumbing never worked.’
‘One of our first apartments was infested with rats, at night you had to put your hands over your ears so you couldn’t hear them eating the pigeons on the roof at night.’
Viola told the TV icon that she had reflected on her past during the Covid lockdown to write her memoir, Finding Me.
The book describes her journey ‘from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond’ and tells her story of finding her voice ‘in a world that didn’t always see me.’
Finding Me will be released on April 26.
Oprah + Viola is available to stream on Netflix.
