The 'How to Get Away with Murder' actress tells all in her new book not only as a way to reconcile with the young girl in her, but to heal her soul from her past experience.
- Apr 13, 2022
AceShowbiz - Viola Davis is not afraid to be truly candid about her past. The "How to Get Away with Murder" actress opened up about exploring hidden trauma to find peace using her new memoir, "Finding Me".
In PEOPLE's April cover story, the 56-year-old actress revealed that there were still many parts of her past that she kept inside. "I was still hiding a huge part of my story, it's almost like I reinvented all the things that I wanted to and tossed away the rest of it," she shared.
Viola continued, "You know when you look at pictures down memory lane, and you see it differently. I think that's why I wrote the book, that if I somehow explored it, unpacked those memories, resolving them, that somehow I could find my peace." She added that when she looked back at her younger self, she could see "how strong she was and how she was just a spitfire."
Because of that, the "Doubt" actress did not hold anything back in her book. She wrote vivid details about her journey as she used to struggle with poverty, her alcoholic father as well as surviving sexual abuse with her older sister.
Viola went on to tell POPLE, "All of those things happened to me, but I own it. And it's a part of who I am." She stated that she "count it all as joy." She recognized that everything she has experienced up until this point is "what connects me to the world. It's reconciling that young girl in me and healing from the past -- and finding a home."
Before writing her memoir, the multi-Emmy winner admitted that she had "an enormous existential crisis." She explained how she thought acting defined her life but soon realized that it did not. She divulged further that, to her, life was not simply about "find that thing that you do, that you are great at, then that's it. And you have money in the bank, and you have a house, and you have a cute husband, and he loves you and your kid, that's it."
Viola further confessed that after completing the writing of her book, she felt "terrible but great." The actress explained, "That's what happens when you just go out on the limb, and you live your truth, is that you risk exposure. You risk shame. You risk criticism." However, she stressed, "There is absolutely no other way to live."
