Viola Davis grew up one of six children in Central Falls, Rhode Island, in a rat-infested building that often didn’t have heat, hot water, or electricity. As she detailed in her 2022 memoir “Finding Me” (via Entertainment Tonight), her family was “po.” “That’s a level lower than poor. … It was reflected in the apartments we lived in, where we shopped for clothes and furniture… the food stamps that were never enough to fully feed us, and the welfare checks. We were ‘po,'” she wrote. Davis wet the bed until she was a teenager, and she frequently reeked of urine because the family couldn’t afford laundry detergent to wash their clothes.
Davis’ family’s dynamic was fraught. Her father struggled with alcohol addiction and physically abused her mother, to the point that Davis feared he might kill her. “When I was in it I normalized it, I normalized that feeling in the pit of your stomach which was extraordinary trauma and anxiety,” she wrote in her memoir. “When I was younger,” she revealed to Vanity Fair, “I did not exert my voice because I did not feel worthy of having a voice.”
The thing that saved her from the heartache was her passion for her chosen craft. “What I had, when I didn’t have confidence even when I didn’t have self love, what I had was drive,” she wrote in “Finding Me.” “You find the joy, and the joy stomps out all the pain.”
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If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
