Actress Viola Davis speaks about the early struggles in her career

While actress Viola Davis can now claim EGOT status as one of 18 people to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony throughout their careers, the 57-year-old actress admitted that in the early days, she had to learn to “embrace” her true self in pursuit of success.

She said, “You always feel like you’re hustling for your worth as a black woman. After a while, when you get beaten down so many times, you have a divine moment where you see yourself and who you actually want to be. You make a choice: do you want to live, do you want hope, or are you going to embrace the person that you don’t want to be? I chose to embrace the hopeful Viola, the Viola that was a survivor.”

However, the ‘Air’ star did go on to acknowledge that she no longer needed to “hustle” her way through her career these days, but claimed that has “nothing to do” with her longevity, but more because she was “born worthy” of success. “I don’t hustle anymore. And it has nothing to do with my age or how long I’ve been in the business. It’s a realisation that worth is nothing to be negotiated with. I was born worthy,” she added.