A Quote by Viola Davis

On stage you never watch yourself. You just experience it, and then you go home, and you feel pretty good if you gave a pretty good performance or crappy if you didn't. But in TV and film, you actually have to experience it while you're doing it, and then you have to watch it. And then when you're watching it, you watch it with a different sensibility than how you experienced it.
I know when I watch a film at this point, if I completely lose myself in the characters and the story and the world of the film I know that it's at least in my opinion, that was great. Otherwise I'm thinking: "Oh I know they were just doing A, B and C, right before they walked into the scene, then the camera was there, then they probably took the shot from this reverse close-up and moved it into this." When all of that drops away then I'm like: "Okay this was phenomenal, this was fantastic." I mean, any film or TV performance in general is probably good.
When you're watching, I find two things happen. You either watch a film and it's really good and then you think, "Why can't I do that?" Or you watch a film and it's not good, and you think, "Why am I doing this?" So either way, it feels like being at work.
When I used to be a contract player in 1954 at Universal, I wasn't getting good roles. I was getting one-liners, and then I'd be gone. But I'd hang around; I'd watch guys. And when I had days off, which was most days, I'd go down and watch other sets while they were shooting. Watch Joan Crawford or whomever. Just watch how they worked and how the director handled them. I didn't know anything about making movies, and there's a lot to learn.
I think Desperate Housewives is a pretty good show, I watch it, I like it and I don't love reality tv that much. I do watch some, I've got three daughters so we'll watch the good stuff, the fun stuff.
You know what's funny about movies? You can watch one, and then you watch it again at a different stage in your life, and you understand different messages from the same film.
Watching shows on Netflix is a different experience because most people are sitting there for three to five hours. Very few people even watch one episode. So it's not like a movie theater where you want to the movies to be shorter so you can go urinate. You can pause and urinate at home, and if something is longer, you're allowed to stop and eat breakfast and then watch eight more episodes.
Most people just half-watch TV. They watch TV while they are doing many other things in the environment of their home. So, what they are doing goes through their ears as much as through their eyes. In television, the narrative and characters are in the foreground of everything, because you are watching TV as you do other stuff.
This culture is sort of antithetical in everything it says to the kids. I don't want to pick on 'Jersey Shore,' but it's pretty clear. I would tell the kids good behavior and hard work will pay off, and then they go home and watch TV and go, 'Oh, that's not true.'
As actresses, our schedules are really wonky and we work weird hours. For me, personally, I watch pretty much everything on Netflix, and I watch all the episodes in a row, when I can. I don't really watch much of any live TV anymore, and I feel like a lot of people are doing that now.
And then I always find myself going back to watch 'A Different World' reruns. I bought each and every single season of 'A Different World', so most of the time, if I'm watching TV then I'm watching 'A Different World'.
I don't go to any of the big Academy parties while the show is on because, invariably, it turns to people watching me watch the host, and it's not comfortable. I watch at home and hope the show gets to be really good.
Pretty much every show that comes on, I'll try to watch at least one episode of it. For me, there are three different levels. I watch the first episode, and if I love it, I'm lockin' it in for the rest of the season. If I'm not too sure about it, I will maybe tune in the next week. It it's just terrible, then I'm done.
I am alone a lot, which is good. I need that time to just be alone after a long day, just decompress. So, I go to either my house or the hotel, or my apartment, or whatever - wherever I am, I go home and I watch TV and I sit there, with my cat, and I just watch TV or go online, check my emails.
If I am not able to go to theaters confidently and watch a film then I don't expect people to watch my film also.
I watch very little television, actually. There's so many shows I want to watch and then I know I'll get hooked and I have to binge-watch the entire thing.
If I watch big games like the Champions League on TV then I'm definitely watching what different centre-backs are doing in certain situations.
This site uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. More info...
Got it!