Variety has multiple covers for their new issue, the annual Power of Women issue. This year’s theme is “powerful women bringing their clout to worthy causes.” The cover subjects: Jennifer Lopez, Reese Witherspoon, Jane Fonda, Donna Langley and YES Viola Davis. J.Lo’s focus is the Lopez Family Foundation, bringing health care to women and children in America and Latin America. Reese’s focus is the Malala Fund, although…I know for a fact that Reese has been a long-time supporter of and fundraiser for rape crisis centers in LA. I guess she just wanted to draw attention to the Malala Fund. You can see the whole Variety package here. I just wanted to talk about Viola’s interview because, obviously, Viola is the best. She is everything.
When Viola Davis partnered with Safeway Foundation and the Entertainment Industry Foundation to introduce the Hunger Is initiative to eradicate childhood hunger earlier this year, her experience became just as emotionally purifying as it was uplifting.
“You just never know when a blessing is going to come,” Davis says. “And speaking for those 15 minutes (when she launched the initiative) kind of opened my eyes and made me just remember a part of my childhood. There was something really cathartic about being there.”
Working on Hunger Is has allowed the “How to Get Away With Murder” star to come to terms with her own struggles with memories of poverty during her youth in Central Falls, R.I., as well as educate her on the varying types of American families who cannot always afford to eat.
“I just thought it was something that I experienced in my childhood,” says Davis. “I didn’t know that one in every five children lives in a household that has food issues and doesn’t know where their next meal is coming from. And they’re not all poor. A lot of them are food poor. After they pay the electric and the rent, they don’t have enough left over for food.”
Hunger Is tries to rectify America’s hunger epidemic through educational outreach, by working with volunteers and through collecting donations. Davis’ participation not only raises public awareness about the problem but also shows what can happen given the chance to overcome it.
“I always say that the little girl who is hungry is always with me,” she says. “I feel like why not use any kind of power I have to serve. There’s a famous saying that ‘to serve is to love.’ I don’t want my tombstone to just say I was a series regular and Oscar nominee.”
Childhood hunger and food insecurity are great issues to take on. I sometimes get the feeling that many actresses and LA types don’t want to talk about food and hunger head-on because… well, most of them are on extreme diets. They try not to eat, by choice. Jeff Bridges has spent decades working with the End Hunger Network and Second Harvest, but he and Viola are two of the rare celebrities really discussing hunger and food insecurity regularly.
TL; DR: Viola is the best.
Covers courtesy of Variety, photos by WENN.
Instagram filters on magazine covers now?
Lens flare, distortion might be genuine, although I doubt it since the other cover is the same way.
It’s really remarkable how many people have to use food banks to survive, in an abundantly rich country.
The cover picture doesn’t do her justice.
I admire her very much for getting behind such an important cause. It’s inexcusable that children go hungry in this country, or any country, of course, but in one with our resources, there’s just no excuse. I thought her comment that not all families with food issues were poor was interesting, too. My father’s parents weren’t poor, but both were heavy drinkers and partiers. By the time he was five, he was stealing money from his parents at the first of the month so they could pay their rent and buy food at the end of the month. I think that stayed with him forever in many ways. I’m not comparing the situations, because my father at least had money to steal and solve the problem, but it’s sad to me that any five year old has to worry about such adult problems, and I think that insecure child stays with you into adulthood. I’m glad she can do something now to help children in a similar situation. That must be healing for her.
I agree. I think she’s more beautiful than the cover, but they were going for artsy, with maybe a hat tip to retro Diana Ross photos, versus the most flattering shot.
On the second point, hunger is hunger. When someone leaves no money for food, there is no money for food. It wasn’t his fault that his parents were so dysfunctional, as I know you know.
True about the picture. It’s powerful and she still looks beautiful, but I think it fails to capture her inner beauty that shines through her eyes. Or something. They look sort of flat.
My dad is the sweetest, gentlest person. He worked so hard to make sure we never felt unsafe or insecure about the basic things in life – how things were paid for, that we were loved, that my parents loved each other. On the other hand, since he had to grow up so fast, he sometimes assumed we we just short adults, and expected us to know things like how to drive a car. It was confusing, but his intentions were good.
Expound on the car story, I imagine hilarity ensuing.
Ok, but it’s actually not all that funny. More like Near Death Experiences With Dad. I was 9. Still playing with Barbie. My dad asks if I want to go out for a boat ride. So we take our boat on a trailer to the lake, and he puts the car and the boat on the ramp, jumps out and tells me to back the car into the lake so he can unhitch the boat. My feet don’t reach the pedals and I don’t know how to drive. I’m 9 ffs. So I try to figure out how to drive. I see the gear shift on the steering wheel and recall people moving it when they drive, so I pull on that. Nothing happens. For a minute. But I had put it in neutral and it slowly starts to back into the lake. Good job! Shouts Dad. Then he starts saying Stop! And brake! And I’m thinking “break what?” And we keep slowly backing into the lake. I have an out of body experience where I just accept that I’m going to drown in the car in the lake, when Dad suddenly sits on me and stops the car. He pulls it out of the lake, and everything is ok. Then he asks me in an exasperated tone, “why didn’t you TELL me you didn’t know how to drive?” I swear, each of my siblings has at least 3 of these stories. Poor Dad. Poor us. We’re lucky to be alive.
Goodnames, thanks for sharing that story. Have you ever complied them? Might help as a cartharsis to get them all out. And then bonus getting to read them sometimes and have an exasperated laugh.
Charlotte, that would be funny. Maybe after he’s gone. It’s bad enough now that when we get together, we all tell the stories and he looks sheepish. We laugh about it. It had negative effects though. It instilled in each of us a deep sense of inadequacy that took a long time to overcome. But people have worse problems.
There’s no competition on chdhood traumas, goodnames. Not living up to a parent’s expectations in so hard and so defining to your life course.
Did I read in another thread you’re in your 50s? That’s lovely you still have your dad around. My partner lost his dad, mum and youngest brother this year. He just turned fifty. He’s much older than me and I used to be so in awe of how he had both his parents alive and together and loving, and then this year suddenly they’re all gone. And that’s now seeming like a random downer story but I meant it as a positive for you. Really.
@GoodNamesAllTaken, With some distance, I think it’s kind of funny, but definitely not in real time.
Yes, Kiddo, it’s funny now. At the time, not so much.
Charlotte, I am very blessed at 58 to have both of my parents, still in relatively good health, still happily married. I am grateful every day for that.
@GoodNames – I’m getting my master’s in counseling psychology and just took family therapy. We learned about the concept of generational cascade – where trauma (big or small), or things like family secrets, etc. – get passed down from one generation to the next.
It was fascinating to read your comments about your grandparents, your dad, and you and how each generation was affected and coped in different ways. I always think of it like the ripples in a pond from a pebble dropping. Thank you for sharing!!!
Thank you for saying that, inthekitchen. I was sort of embarrassed that I turned her very valid points about child hunger into a story about me, so I appreciate your response. I definitely think that each generation affects the next in ways they never anticipated. Good luck with your career. I think that sounds so interesting and satisfying!
This comment is for Goodnames who I can’t get to reply to. Never stop sharing your stories. It’s weird how I feel like I know some of you. I know personalities cannot be completely discerned through comments but you just seem like an awesome person to get to know in real life.
@GoodNames – Of course I don’t know Viola, but I bet she would love that she inspired you to share something that was difficult for you in your life, in the same way she has shared about how her childhood was difficult!!
What I got from her comments is that sharing her experiences helps her deal with the shame (shame sucks!) she felt/feels around her childhood, and I’d bet that she would be really moved that you were inspired by her words to think about your own experience/family.
I send an internet hug (I don’t know how to make a cute emoticon to show that)!
…oops, I ended up in the wrong thread indent. this was in reply to your 1:38pm comment.
Thank you, inthekitchen! I don’t know how to do hugs, either, but it would if I could! You are very kind.
I like the photo. It’s interesting. I want more Viola Davis. I hate to think of any kids going hungry. Whether it’s a poverty situation or adults who don’t have their act together there’s no need for it in it’s or any country like it.
I like the photo too. Also I must say, her cleavage is so gorgeous. And she gives great interview. Hope she stays in the game for a long time….
I don’t care for that cover, but it doesn’t matter. Viola is flawless. Love, love, love her.
I give all of these women credit for the work they do with these organizations, but especially Viola. It’s very personal to her, and from the moment she’s had a public platform, she’s worked hard to use it well.
As a dependent recipient of government-issued food as a child, this is a cause I can totally get behind. Very glad she and others shed some light.
Just commenting because I love Viola and she needs more comments on her posts! What an amazing woman.
I love her too! Her talent and her intelligence are so striking to me. I have been trying to get caught up on her new show, but it is taking me forever because my free time is limited. I have only seen the first half of the first episode, but I kind of wished it focused more on her and not so much the students!
She is so gorgeous. That skin!
Awful cover, but the more I hear about Viola, the more I admire her. She is an incredible person.
Another reason to love Viola!
Not the most flattering cover of Viola but her awesome will always shine through.
Viola makes a great point about families paying bills and rent and not having enough left over for food. I read this article earlier this year about a woman and her husband who both lost their jobs and found themselves in incredible debt. They were constantly harassed about their Mercedes, which was fully paid off long before they were in debt and still ran well. I found it to be really informative and interesting.
” We didn’t deserve to be poor, any more than we deserved to be rich. Poverty is a circumstance, not a value judgment. I still have to remind myself sometimes that I was my harshest critic. That the judgment of the disadvantaged comes not just from conservative politicians and Internet trolls. It came from me, even as I was living it.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/07/08/this-is-what-happened-when-i-drove-my-mercedes-to-pick-up-food-stamps/
I’ve had months where money just ran out. I have a Master’s degree, but you have to pay those loans, and put gas in your car to work. We’ve never actually been without good, but meals have been creative. I can get behind this initiative.
I can completely relate to her definition of “food poor”. Growing up, we barely ever had food in the house. Our bills were paid, but it left little for groceries. I remember always being embarrassed of my friends seeing my tiny lunch, and lack of drink. I never liked having friends over, fear they ask for something to eat, or worse yet, witness the bare fridge themselves.
Thank goodness things have turned around for myself and my own family. My kids are very lucky to have all the food we do….sometimes I wish they would appreciate it more, and not be so wasteful. Anyway, what a great thing she is doing with this organization!
Love her. Is all.