‘How To Get Away With Murder’ Actress Viola Davis Reveals The Reason She Started Acting: ‘I Want People To Be Seen’

Fresh off her recent Oscar win for best supporting actress last Sunday, “How To Get Away With Murder” actress Viola Davis gave yet another impassioned speech at Harvard University’s Sander Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Saturday evening. She received the 2017 Artist of the Year award during the Cultural Rhythms Festival at the university.

Speaking to a crowd full of students, Davis said (via People), “I spent so many years at Juilliard just wanting to beat somebody up. I think it was the height of my anger; that chip on my shoulder. I’m still trying to take care of that chip on my shoulder, by the way. It was mainly because I felt my voice as an artist was being stifled.”

The 51-year-old artist added, “I want people to be seen. I want them to feel less alone. I think Picasso is the one who said ‘I paint because I want to show people what’s going on behind the eyes.’”

Davis noted that both the screen and stage are very sacred places.

The mother-of-one recently won an Academy Award for playing Rose Maxson in “Fences.” While accepting the award, she gave a powerful speech. “People ask me all the time: ‘What kind of stories do you want to tell, Viola?’” she said, “And I say exhume those bodies, exhume those stories. The stories of the people who dreamed big … People who fell in love and lost.”

“The Help” actress added, “I became an artist, and thank God I did, because we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life.”

Davis recently wrapped up her third season in ABC’s thriller series “How To Get Away With Murder.” It has been renewed for a fourth season. She is married to actor Julius Tennon and they have an adopted daughter together, now aged 6 years old, named Genesis.