Viola Davis: 'I've Never Determined My Value Based on My Looks'
Viola Davis on the cover of InStyle December 2015. (Photo: Jan Welters)
How to Get Away with Murder star, Emmy winner, and two-time Oscar nominee Viola Davis is ending her career-defining year with an appearance on the December 2015 cover of InStyle. While the magazine dressed her in looks by Lanvin, Rochas, and Ports 1961, Davis admitted to have a much less glamorous wardrobe of her own: “Taking care of a 5-year-old, cooking at home, and running to the set when you’ve had four hours of sleep, you don’t feel like a movie star,” she said. “Then, every once in a while, you put something on that makes you feel cute.”
Davis also told the magazine that she’s never valued herself based on her looks. "What’s released me most from the fear of aging is self-awareness,” she told InStyle. “I’ve never determined my value based on my looks or anything physical. I’ve been through a lot in life, and what has gotten me through is strength of character and faith.”
At the Emmy Awards this year, where Davis won Best Actress, she delivered a speech that highlighted how Hollywood’s lack of opportunity influences Hollywood’s lack of diversity. “The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You can’t win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there,” she said. “So here’s to all the writers, the awesome people — Ben Sherwood, Paul Lee, Peter Nowalk, Shonda Rhimes — people who have redefined what it means to be beautiful, to be sexy, to be a leading women, to be black. And to the Taraji P. Hensons, the Kerry Washingtons, the Halle Berrys, the Nicole Beharies, the Meagan Goods, to Gabrielle Union, thank you for taking us over that line.”
While she rarely has the time, the hardworking actress and mom makes time for one specific beauty perk — she admits to going to the spa at every chance possible. “I am addicted to spas,” she said. “If we go to a hotel, we’ll be the only people in that spa for hours. We’ll start at 5 in the morning sometimes.”
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