Viola Davis opens up on the challenges she faced when she began pursuing a career in acting, recounting how she was often considered to be “too big and too black” to be cast in roles

Viola Davis has opened up on the challenges she faced when she began pursuing a career in acting, recounting how she was often considered to be “too big and too black” to be cast in roles. (Read More Here).

While she’s arguably one of the busiest actresses in Hollywood today, the 57-year-old tells The Guardian that her rise to fame was far from easy, which was heavily blamed on her darker skin tone and bigger figure.

Davis’ road to stardom became all the more challenging as she continued to deal with trauma rooted around her childhood, which saw her being sexually assaulted by “dirty old men” in the Rhode Island neighborhood where she grew up. Her family was living in poverty, and while she was determined to follow her dreams in the field of performing arts, she was now faced to deal with people taking issue with not just her skin color but also her size and her voice.

“What is in my power to change is to show people that we are more than the stamp that people have put on dark-skinned women,” she said. “That we are sexual, that we are desirable, that we can be smart, that we are way more expansive and our identity is not determined by your gaze. I can change that. I can change the way Black women are seen, to some extent, within the industry.”