Viola Davis is the new face of L'Oréal Paris.
Viola Davis
The 54-year-old actress has landed her first ever major beauty campaign and hailed the chance to utter their famous slogan, "Because I'm worth it", a "gift".
She wrote on Instagram: "The self affirming words of, 'Because I'm worth it' have always given me chill bumps. What a joy it will be to not just say them over and over again...but to spread the message of worth to women around the world. It is a gift."
The 'How to Get Away With Murder' actress thinks being "worth it" is to embrace the "greatest privilege" of being true to herself and thinks it is "crazy" that she used to feel expected to conform in order to succeed.
She said: "I believe that the greatest privilege is to be who you are.
"No apologies for your age, your colour, anything. As long as you're you and living up to who that is and what that means, you're worth it. That's self-worth.
"Earlier in my career when I was much more affected, [conforming] almost felt like prerequisite to success, which is crazy if you think about it--what do looks have to do with acting ability?
"In order to succeed, you had to meet these impossible standards. Now I am much more secure in who I am, but there was a time that I did feel those pressures and succumb to them to a degree."
And the 'Fences' star admitted her appointment feels "surreal" because she never thought she's be a beauty spokesperson as she couldn't relate to those who were when she was younger.
She told People magazine: "It feels surreal. First of all, and you can take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt, I never thought that I could be an international spokesperson for L'Oréal. The fact that I am, it feels like my life has come full circle.
"When I thought of beauty and femininity when I was a young scrappy girl growing up in Central Falls, Rhode Island, I didn't associate it with myself.
"I didn't think that I had all those attributes that women who are seen like that should have."
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