Viola Davis' five-year-old daughter wants to be an actress.
Viola Davis
The 'How to Get Away With Murder' star is encouraging of Genesis' ambition to enter her "terrific" profession, but is keen for her little girl - who she has with husband Julius Tennon - to complete her education and not to rush into things as she doesn't want to choose the "lifestyle" for her only child's future before she fully understands what it entails.
She told E! News: "She says she wants to be an actress.
"[She says], "I gotta live the words, I gotta breath the words, I gotta remember the words,' and I said, 'Yeah and you also gotta go to school and get out of this house and pay your own rent.'...I just think this is a terrific profession. The work is fantastic, but the lifestyle? Eh. I don't want to choose that for her at a young age."
The 50-year-old actress has spoken openly about growing up in extreme poverty in Rhode Island and admitted she never always knew if she'd achieve her acting ambitions.
However, Viola admits her dreams are what keeps her passionate about her career.
She added: "I hoped, I dreamed but I didn't know.
"I just felt like the dreaming and the hoping would be enough and I think for the most part it is. I think that's what makes you get up in the morning and keeps you working and keeps you excited and in it and passionate and I think it's the passion that carries you through life."
Though she has won a string of awards for her TV and film work, the 'Fences' star much prefers being on stage.
She said: "I feel like the stage is a place that I feel comfortable because with TV and screen I always feel 'the extra'.
"And it's the extra that i don't always have or I don't feel like I have. You have to have the sex appeal, you got to be likeable, you got to have the box office, you got to have all this and skill is somewhere in there. Stage is all skill and I groove with that."
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