5 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT ME
THE AWARD-WINNING ACTRESS NEVER GAVE UP ON HER DREAMS — AND NOW SHE’S LIVING THEM
I GREW UP POOR One of six kids, Viola, 55, was raised in Central Falls, R.I., where her dad worked as a horse groomer and her mom was a maid and factory worker. Although times were tough, “it was [my] hope and dreams that made me put my feet on the floor every morning and just approach every day with a sense of enthusiasm,” she says. “It was my fight or flight that kicked in.”
CICELY TYSON INSPIRED ME “When I was a kid, I saw The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, and Ms. Tyson looked like me,” recalls Viola, who in 2015 became the first Black woman ever to win an Emmy for lead actress in a drama for ABC’s
How to Get Away With Murder. “I saw a physical
manifestation of a dream.”
MY FAITH GIVES ME STRENGTH “I am a God believer,” she says. “I believe that sometimes you have to give it over to a higher entity, because sometimes I don’t have the answers and I’m never going to have them. It does come from my prayers, but it also comes from the fact that in order to stay on my feet and to keep breathing, I have to have hope.”
THE JACUZZI IS MY HAPPY PLACE It’s where she enjoys “together time” with her husband of 17 years, and we soak and we talk,” she says. “We just chat, chat, chat. Every single day we do that.”
MY FAVORITE ROLE IS MOM Adopting her daughter Genesis, 10, “has given me a whole new purpose,” Viola says. “I feel like a star at home only because she loves me so much. It’s a red carpet every day. It’s wonderful!”