We don’t see it. Seriously, we don’t. Hollywood actress Viola Davis has opened up about being branded as “ugly” during her childhood years. She said that she was forced to put on a mask of bravery over her years but also really believed that she was indeed ugly after she endured years of bullying when she was a child. Here’s what you need to know.
Viola told Oprah Winfrey during a Netflix special how she would run home to avoid school bullies abusing her every day.
Viola Davis Says She Was Branded Her As ‘Ugly’ During Her Childhood Years
Davis, who has gone on to win top awards for stage and screen, including two Tonys and a Bafta, 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.”
She continued, “The level of hatred when they were saying those words, that really is the memory that defined me. 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. I wish it were a different story but it was so powerful. I made the decision age 28 or 29 when I went into therapy, that I wanted it to be different.”
Davis 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.
Davis added: “It was a life of abject poverty, a life of deprivation. There was plaster coming off the walls, always being hungry, plumbing never worked, never having a phone. 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.”
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