Viola Davis on aging: you value life and time because you feel like you’re running out

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Viola Davis is representing L’oreal Age Perfect makeup and I feel like she’s the perfect spokesperson for that line, because she’s so lovely and I’m a fan. She’s one of my favorite celebrities to cover. Viola has a new interview with People promoting the line where she said a lot of wise and interesting things about beauty and aging. It sounds like when she notices something she doesn’t like about herself she just decides to focus on what she does like. She also said her beauty icon is Oprah! She wanted to look like Oprah back when Oprah won the Oscar for The Color Purple. That was in 1986, when Oprah was 32 and Viola was 21. Over 30 years have passed and Viola is a beauty icon now too. (My words, I know she wouldn’t call herself that.) Here’s some of what she told People, with more at the source.

“Now, I don’t want to look like anyone other than me,” the How to Get Away with Murder star, 54, tells PEOPLE at the L.A. launch of L’Oréal Paris’ new Age Perfect Makeup collection. “That was a big thing in my twenties especially.”

When she was younger, Davis says she dreamed of looking like one super-famous star before becoming truly confident with her own unique beauty. “I wanted to look like Oprah, especially when she went to the Oscars for The Color Purple. I thought she was the most beautiful,” the actress reveals.

“I never told her that. Literally, Oprah went to one of my weddings and I never had the guts to say, ‘Oprah, I was always trying to look like you!’” Davis adds.

But now Davis highlights the features that make her who she is using makeup. “I embracing my nose and my lips. It’s like all of a sudden I was like, ‘Viola, that’s what your lips always looked like? Why’d you have a problem with that?’ I love wearing red lipstick, which took me a long time, because I think my lips are fabulous,” she says.

“I feel so seen and valued with this collection for older women,” the L’Oréal Paris brand ambassador says. “You’re still very much beautiful in that way.”

Still, Davis isn’t ashamed to admit that it isn’t easy to see herself physically getting older. “I’m not going to lie, it is harder to see the jowls and the eyes,” she says. “But the other thing happens where you begin to value life and time, especially time, because you feel like you’re running out of it.”

Because of that, Davis has grown to appreciate the signs of aging she has started to see on her body. “You put the fine lines in their place and they become sort of like survivor scars. I recently saw a photo of myself where I noticed some jowls. But it’s interesting how I didn’t stop there. I said, ‘Oh, but my skin looks really nice in that picture,’” she says.

Davis continues: “When I was younger, I worried about how pretty someone else thought I was. Now, I see the whole picture.”

[From People]

She kind of expertly captured how I feel about myself now that I’m closer to 50. (Just a little bit! I’m not pushing 50 yet.) In regard to my features, I find certain things that I think are so pretty, like my eyes, and others that I want to change, like the lines around them. I’m not obsessing over it and I try not to nitpick myself. That’s also adorable that she looked up to Oprah when she was young, knows her now and never had the nerve to tell her she wanted to look like her! Oprah knows now! I want to see how Oprah is going to respond to that, you know she’s going to be flattered. As for aging, I also feel like I have a different relationship with time, particularly as my son is growing up and preparing to leave the house. It’s like I blink and a week has passed. I try to savor the best moments because I know how quickly they’re over.

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5 Responses to “Viola Davis on aging: you value life and time because you feel like you’re running out”

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  1. Lucy says:

    She’s one of those people whose smile automatically makes me want to smile.

  2. Scollins says:

    She.
    Is.
    Fabulous.

  3. Memoe says:

    She’s beautiful inside and out.

    Thank you for such a positive and gracious article!

  4. Andrew’s Nemesis says:

    Enormous girl crush on Viola Davis: a stellar actor, role model, beauty icon and all-round amazing human being.

  5. Redgrl says:

    It’s true that time becomes more precious as you age… well put Viola! And she has such beautiful skin!