- Because I didn't want
to be like my ancestors and everyone else. But I felt like my only two choices was to either make it or not. I didn't want to be a celebrity, I didn't want to be an entertainer, I wanted to be an artist. If it's going to be too
degrading and it's going to be something that I can't
live with, I can't do it. - She's an American producer
and actress on stage, screen and television. Her breakthrough film came in 2008 with her role as a
supporting actress in Doubt in 2012 is listed by
Time as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. She's Viola Davis and here's my take on her top 10 rules of success. Rule number three is my personal favorite and make sure to stick
around all the way to the end for some special bonus clips. Also, as Viola's talking,
if she says something that's really meaningful to you, really resonates with you, please leave it in the comments below
and put quotes around it so other people can be inspired as well. Enjoy. (inspirational music) - Because I was brought up in
such a challenging situation I think that it required me to live a more examined life if I were to get out. I had to dream big. There was no room for failure. So therefore I couldn't go the normal route. So I found myself at a very
young age living that sort of life because I didn't want to be like, like my ancestors and
everyone else who was like me. They were, you know, everyone
was either alcoholics or they lived in poverty,
they accepted their lot in life and I just felt like I
didn't want to live that way. And anybody who wants to
kind of stray from the pack, I think has to lead a more examined life. I did what I had to do in
order to make the dream work. I made the commitment
knowing that knowing that it always wasn't going to be a smooth ride. But I felt like my only
two choices was to either make it or not. And the not wasn't an option. So I paid whatever money I need to pay for the public transportation
to get to acting school when I was 15 and I did
whatever I had to do to get my undergraduate degree in theater. I did the work and I
knew that there was no skimping on the work. Well, in third grade, this
kid was always teasing me, I won't mention his name. But he was always teasing
me, calling me you nigga, you black nigger, just every single day. This is way, way back when so. So one day I said I'm going to get him. He was considered the fastest
runner in Central Falls. And I said I'm going to beat your butt I'm going to race you at recess,
you're not the fastest runner in Central Falls, I'm the
fastest runner in Central Falls. I probably flip them the finger, you know I was a vulgar
kid too, I could give it as much as I got it. So at recess we decided to
race and the whole school was involved, everybody in
the school heard about it and all the boys and some of the girls were on his side just
kind of screaming for him, and I had my three or
four friends on my side. And we lived in such abject
poverty I remember that we wouldn't keep
up-to-date with the shoes, so my shoes were maybe a size too small, and it was the dead of
winter and I could never, I couldn't walk in the
shoes, I'd have to stop every two steps, take the
shoes off then put the shoes kind of back on and walk again,
they'd hurt my feet so bad. And then my socks were sold
torn, only the top part of my socks were left. So I said how am I going
to race him at recess with these shoes? So I said I'm going to take my shoes off. Take my socks off, I'm
going to take my shoes off in the dead of winter and the concrete. And I raced him. And I beat him. And I thought to myself,
it's only been recently that thought to myself
that everybody was cheering and cheering and he was
saying, you didn't beat me, it was a tie, you didn't beat me! I said yes I did, yes I did. And then I got in
trouble with the teachers for having my shoes off. But nobody noticed that I
didn't have any shoes on. And that's, it's a metaphor for life because nobody knows that
when you come to the race, you don't come with the same
set of tools as everyone else. That even when you come into the race with a deficit you still
have to run the same race. And that's a metaphor I use
for my career, you know? That you you can't be
perceived even as the black actress who doesn't get
the same kind of roles as the white actors, you
got to run the same race. You got to give the same
quality performances, you've got to have the same
standard of excellence, even though people know
that you come into the race in a deficit, that's just
what life is about, you know? You know, that's all you
have at the end of the day is your work and your
integrity at all costs. I don't care if it's
four scenes in a movie and I don't care what it is
that you have to infuses it with as much excellence as you can. So then, absolutely,
when I was able to work with Meryl Streep it was a dream come true and I knew that I to step my game. You know, you always get better
when you work with people who are excellent. You almost never get better
when you work with people who are not excellent. - So when did that dream hit you? If it's hitting genesis at
five when did it hit you that you wanted to do this? - Well, Cicely Tyson, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,
when I seven years old. That was it. That was literally, I
can absolutely mark it. Definitively in 128 Washington
Street, in a rat infested, not mice infested, rat infested, condemned apartment building,
with almost no plumbing, every once in awhile,
the plumbing would work. No phone, lack of food, most
of the time, no electricity. No hot water. But that one, it was summertime I believe. And we had some electricity
because we ran the wires through the other apartment,
we had that one TV that you put the aluminum foil on the antenna. And I saw magic, I saw craft. And that's what I wanted to do, I wanted to be an artist. I didn't want to be a
celebrity, I didn't want to be an entertainer. I wanted to be an artist
because that's what I saw. There's always, you always
have to have a boundary as an actor. For me you, are not going to see me naked. (audience laughing and applauding) I'm not going to get naked. I've turned down a lot of
money to get naked for this one television show that
actually never made it, because I said I'm not
going to be able to live with this if this is kind of preserved in celluloid forever. But you always have to have
a boundary of what you will or will not do. Now your boundary is
different from my boundary because it's like you start,
you weigh your choices and for me if it's going
to be too degrading and it's going to be something
that I can't live with, I can't do it. I can't do it. And even, I can't even do a lot of roles where I cuss a lot a lot. I'd have do an audition
where I had to really, really, I mean, but it was
extraordinary amount of cussing, I just couldn't do it. And I don't feel like I'm
that puritanical but it's just too much for me. So if you don't have to
have any boundaries then you're going to to be a puppet, you know. And at the same time, you
have to live with yourself at the end of the day. You know that's something the actors, we do a lot because we want it
so bad so we're willing to do anything to get it. It's good to have boundaries,
I think it's really good. I know that acting is not
rocket science but it is an art form. And what I find that as the
time has gone on that people have kind of forgotten
that it's an art form. I had a guy who drove my
husband and I somewhere and he said that his
brother was an acting coach, and more and more young
people are coming to him and saying just make me
good enough to get the role. - Yeah. - And I didn't go win it
for that and I'm not trying to make myself look good either
but when I saw Cicely Tyson do Jane Pittman, I wanted
to be a crafts person. I really understood that it was a craft, that I wanted to transform in every role. I wanted to be brave and now
it's gotten harder to do that, when, especially as your profile raises, it's hard to do that. I mean, I don't mean to sound confusing. When you talk to most
actors they will tell you, oh, this is what I've always wanted to do, I love acting, and I do love acting. But it's like any commitment. You have periods where you
fall out of love with it. And along your journey as an actor, there are so many moments
you fall out of love with it, that you, you wonder, you forget
why you wanted to do it and you wonder if this is
what you're meant to do. But basically, it is a love, I guess. I think along the way, I've
question the commitment. - [Interviewer] So those
moments of questioning come when you're doing work
that's not as interesting or do they come when
you're doing particularly interesting stuff? - They come when I'm not doing
things that are interesting. They come when I'm doing
something interesting, I think, and it's not received well. They come when the business
strangles my love of it. Those are the moments
that come and you forget why you love it. You do. And sometimes the memory
lapse can last a long time. And then you think OK, there's
got to be something else that's going to come in it this just, comes in my life that's going
to wake me up in the morning. That's the journey of an actor though, I guess that's what it is. - [Interviewer] Well, I guess
that anything that you love that becomes a job, it hurts. It doesn't have that same... I mean, obviously a lot of
people just go through life working for the weekend, as the song says. - Yeah, exactly. - [Interviewer] But if you
have things that you're passionate about, that you're working for, reexamining it and finding it again, - Yes. - [Interviewer] It's certainly
a challenge we all go through in whatever profession
over and over again. - Yeah and I guess that's what it is, I went through that long diatribe. - [Interviewer] No, it was great diatribe. - But really, that's what it is. You question the passion. You know it's like any commitment, you got to work on the passion, too. You got to work to bring the passion back. - With Doubt, which might be
the first time that people in film necessarily really
appreciated what you're doing. (audience applauding) Your preparation for that
was astronomical, amazing and so the last the
last pre-Help question, if I can just ask you just
to show the kind of work that you're willing to do for even, I think it was eight
minutes of screen time, which was deservedly rewarded
with an Oscar nomination, but I mean that is not a ton
to work with and yet you made the most of it. What did you do to prepare for that one? - Well, it's based on a
play so I read the play. After the play I said I don't
even understand this woman. I don't know why this
got all this attention, this woman wants to sacrifice
her son and da, da, da, da. And I had all the kind of
responses that you would have with character that you
didn't understand but it's, being an actor you have
to do investigative work. You have to, you have to make sure that when people are in the
audience they understand you. And they ultimately feel something. And so I had to write a bio
which ended up being over a hundred pages. I talk to people who had seen
the play because I was doing a play at the same time
and never saw the play. I read the script probably I don't know how many times. So literally study the
script for four months before I finally got it, like
I had the aha moment. And the aha moment is we
always want to feel that decisions are pretty. We always want to believe
that decisions are easy and sometimes they're a Sophie's Choice. You know? And sometimes a person's
motivations are absolutely pure, but to the outside eye, they
look very dysfunctional. And I probably, you
know, had the aha moment two days before even started
filming and I was really waiting for that aha moment
because I said I'm going to be opposite Meryl Streep and
she's going to tear me a new A-hole. And I do not want to look bad
so, but I had that aha moment. But I did my work with that. I can't emphasize that enough, you know? Because I never want anyone
to dismiss my talent. Listen I may get up in the
screen and there are times where may stink because
it's occupational hazard to not always be good, but
I never want anyone to say that she's not an actress. I'm an artist, I consider
myself to be an artist, first and foremost. And when I was given Annalise Keating, I tell this story a lot
that I saw the pilot and I was horrified 'cause
you got to look at yourself, with my lashes and my little chubby waste, that I thought was a very chubby waste. And I didn't look the way
I thought I would look. I had an idea in my head when
I thought of the adjectives, sexy, dynamic, mysterious! You know, and I didn't see
sexy, dynamic, mysterious. - [Co-Panelist] We did, they're right. - But no, what I'm leading to is, I said why not? And I think that that's
where it all beings. Is that question of why not? Why can't I be sexy? I reject the notion, in the past, that dark skin women cannot be beautiful. I reject the fact that
if I take my wig off and do a whole scene with my fro, that somehow that's taboo. I reject the fact that
I have to be a size two. I reject the fact that
I have to be likable, I'd rather be interesting. Nobody asked Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver or James Gandolfini, or Anthony Hopkins. You know, were you concerned
that you were likable in Silence of the Lambs? (audience laughing) (audience applauding) That somehow, you have
to reject all the things that people have told you you were. And I think it starts there. - That's amazing, I don't think, who can follow that? On that note... (audience applauding) - Thank you guys, so much for watching. I made this video because
Sheryl Chapman asked me to. So if there's a famous
entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, leave
it in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know,
what was the most impactful part of this video for you? What lesson resonated the most with you and you're going to carry
that forward into your life and your business. Please leave it in the comments below, I'm going to join in the discussion. I also want to give a quick
shout out to Davina Lyons. Thank you so much for
picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word. It really, really,
really means a lot to me. Thank you guys again for
watching, I believe in you, I hope you continue to
believe in yourself. And whatever your one word is, much love. I'll see you soon. - In my mind, I see a line. And over that line I see green
fields and lovely flowers and beautiful white women
with their arms stretched out to me over that line. But I can't seem to get there no how. I can't seem to get over that line." That was Harriet Tubman in the 1800s. And let me tell you something. The only thing that
separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. (audience applauding) You cannot win an Emmy for
roles that are simply not there. (audience applauding) So here's to all the writers, the awesome people that are Ben Sherwood,
Paul Lee, Peter Nowalk, Shonda Rhimes. People who have redefined what it means to be beautiful, to be
sexy, to be a leading woman, to be black. (audience applauding) And to the Taraji P. Hensons, the Kerry Washingtons, the Halle Berrys, the Nicole Beharies, the Meagan Goods. To Gabrielle Union. Thank you for taking us over that line. Thank you to the Television Academy. Thank you. What is there but a dream,
you can't trade in your dream for another dream. I am so proud to be an actor and I thank The Screen Actors Guild for this award. And I have a special,
special note to the kids in Central Falls, Rhode
Island and Segue Institute of Learning in Central
Falls, Rhode Island. To dream big and dream fierce. Thank you very much. (audience applauding) So my question is, Senator
Truco, did you have Trisha Stanley murdered? - Are you out of your mind? - Your Honor, this has
gone on long enough. - Did you convince your tenant
Linda Morelli to testify that Trisha Stanley was
killed by her boyfriend, David Allen? - You are way off base, I
recommend you rein this in. - Explain why your eviction
suit against Ms. Morelli was dropped despite her
inability to pay rent. - [Judge] Ms. Keating. - Is it because her lost rent
money was nothing compared to the millions you made once Ms.
Stanley was out of your way? (gavel banging) - Answer the question, Senator. - [Judge] Ms. Keating, enough. - Why was Linda Morelli
granted these concessions? - Mr. Chief Justice, I have
extended great deference to the court by showing up here today. But I am not going to put
up with this any longer. - I am sorry, senator, if you
do not have the time to answer for who bore the real
cost of your development. - [Defense] Objection! - Not just Trisha Stanley
and her boyfriend, David Allen, who served
21 years in prison. - [Defense] Your Honor, please! - But the thousands who
were displaced in the name of lining your pockets! - [Judge] Ms. Keating! - The majority of whom are
poor, powerless, and didn't bear the color of skin desirable
to your business interests. - [Judge] That's enough, Ms. Keating! - You tore a community apart. - [Judge] Ms. Keating, I want order! - You tore families apart,
you destroyed lives, Senator. - [Judge] Ms. Keating! - Admit it., admit you
killed Trisha Stanley and had my client, David
Allen, set up for her murder. - That is enough! You hear me? You say another word, and
I'll have no choice but to throw you in jail. - We need a dozen more. - Me and Aibileen done
asked everybody we know. 31 maids. They all too scared, think we crazy. - Well, if we don't get more, we're
not getting published. - I gots plenty a stories, Miss Skeeter. Just write 'em down and
invent the maid that said it. You're already making up names. Just make up the maids, too. - We're not going to do that. That would be wrong. - Don't give up on this, Miss Skeeter. - It wouldn't be real. - They killed my son. He fell carrying two by fours at the mill. Truck run over him, crushed his lung. - Aibileen. - That white foreman threw his body on the back of a truck. Drove to the colored hospital. Dumped him there and honked the horn. There was nothin' they could do so I brought my baby home. Laid him down on that sofa right there. He died right in front of me. Just 24 years old, Miss Skeeter. Best part of a person's life. Anniversary of his death come every year and I can't breathe. But to you all it's just
another day of bridge. You stop this, everything I wrote, he wrote, everything he was going to die with him.
