Viola Davis Explains Why She Doesn’t Shy Away From Sex Scenes

Viola Davis doesn’t mind doing some steamy scenes on-screen — but she wants them to feel genuine.

“I’m not a woman who’s a size 2,” Davis, 51, told Tom Hanks on Variety’s Actors on Actors. “If I’m in a sex scene, I want to play the sex scene. I want to say, ‘This is why I’m attracted to you, it’s gotten to this point, this is what my body looks like.’ ”

The actress jokes that while her body may differ from other females’ in Hollywood, she often ends up playing alongside someone who “looks like they’ve been in the gym for the last year” in her love scenes.

“Suddenly on TV, you could be doing all that work as an actor, and then the actor that you’re playing with, who’s wonderful by the way, will get out of bed and look like they’ve been in the gym for the last year,” she says.

“They never show characters at the gym working out,” adds Hanks, 60. “They always just all have a great body.”

Davis says that seeing all these ideal bodies makes her “hate [watching] nude scenes.”

“I look at them and I’m like, ‘Okay, you’ve been in the gym,’ ” she says. ” ‘Where are the stretch marks?’ ”

That’s why Davis is proud to play her “sexualized” role on How to Get Away with Murder.

“I saw it as an opportunity way bigger than doing good work — I saw it as an opportunity for a dark-skinned actress of 50 to be in a role that’s sexualized, not sexy.” she says. “There’s a difference between sexualized and sexy.”

This article originally appeared on People.com