There are only 19 EGOTs in the world (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony winners), but for Viola Davis, those covetable wins were the manifestation of a dream she maintains was borne of circumstance.
“When you grow up in a certain set of circumstances, you no longer see yourself. And that’s why you dream big because it’s almost like you’re forcing yourself to just believe that something could happen,” Davis told People, as one of several celebrities helping the magazine celebrate its 50th anniversary.
At 52, the actress and producer is a long way from her deeply impoverished and abuse-riddled upbringing in Rhode Island, which she chronicled in her bestselling 2022 memoir, “Finding Me.” (Davis’ narration of her memoir coincidentally cemented her EGOT status, as she nabbed the 2023 Grammy for Best Audiobook, Narration, and Storytelling Recording.) While she now enjoys a very stable and elevated lifestyle with her husband, Julius Tennon, and their 13-year-old daughter Genesis, Davis’ journey to stardom wasn’t a dream she believed could come true.
“I never imagined myself getting a lead role like [complicated “How to Get Away With Murder” heroine] Annalise Keating,” said Davis, who also appeared in the DC Comics-based “Suicide Squad” as she launched the Shonda Rhimes-produced hit series. “And I thought to myself, ‘Oh my God, Viola, it really can happen to people like you.’ Because I already made up my mind that the industry put a stamp on me. I understand that people from the outside say, ‘You can’t sell yourself short. You are beautiful, Viola. You’re all those things.’ … [But] I never knew that my career could transpire like this.”
Reflecting on her subsequent 2017 Best Supporting Actress Oscar win for “Fences,” Davis described the full-circle moment of sharing the triumph of that evening with her mother, even before winning. “It was like pulling a rabbit out of the hat. That Viola, you…
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