Viola Davis gets honest on poverty and taking roles for money

Viola Davis opened up about the start of her acting career and roles she had to take for money.

Davis also reflected on beauty standards of the entertainment industry and said there weren’t many good roles written for someone with her appearance.

“So I started this journey of acting. Let me tell you something, not to be a contradiction but when I started off in my career I took a lot of jobs because of the money,” she said in a speech at the Golden Globes gala.

She stated: “Sometimes for a dark-skinned, Black woman with a wide nose and big lips, that’s all there was out there. If I waited for a role that was well-crafted and written for me …”

She reflected on poverty and the importance of earning a good lifestyle: “I do not believe that poverty is really the answer to your craft. I don’t think there’s any nobility in poverty. I’ve seen too many rat-infested apartments. I’ve seen too many relatives dead or dying for lack of health care. I took every job. It was an opportunity to get in there.

Viola Davis added: “Sometimes those gold nuggets would rain down on me. I got the Mrs. Millers and the Annalise Keatings [roles]. And I would go ‘Oh my god, I’m cooking. I’m going to be the next Meryl Streep.’”