--- title: Viola Davis Accepts Award at Harvard description: Find out what Viola Davis said about experiencing frustration early on in her career while speaking at Harvard. canonical: https://time.com/4692147/viola-davis-award-harvard/ author: Samantha Cooney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-06T17:24:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:05:03.979Z og:title: Viola Davis Says She Once Had a ‘Chip’ on Her Shoulder og:description: 'I felt my voice as an artist was being stifled' og:url: https://time.com/4692147/viola-davis-award-harvard/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb785d0ed3b906340/6988bd210a4a22c9cd9cd2d4/viola-davis-harvard-award.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Viola Davis Awarded Harvard Foundation's 2017 Artist Of The Year og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Viola Davis Says She Once Had a ‘Chip’ on Her Shoulder twitter:description: 'I felt my voice as an artist was being stifled' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb785d0ed3b906340/6988bd210a4a22c9cd9cd2d4/viola-davis-harvard-award.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Viola Davis Says She Once Had a ‘Chip’ on Her Shoulder > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=48a55f0a-1691-48d5-b5c6-e187fa5967ee&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Mar 6, 2017 5:24 PM UTC  CAMBRIDGE, MA - MARCH 04: Viola Davis receives the Artist of the Year Award at Harvard University's Sanders Theatre on March 4, 2017 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Photo by Natasha Moustache/Getty Images) CAMBRIDGE, MA - MARCH 04: Viola Davis receives the Artist of the Year Award at Harvard University's Sanders Theatre on March 4, 2017 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Photo by Natasha Moustache/Getty Images) Natasha Moustache—Getty Images  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Mar 6, 2017 5:24 PM UTC For [Viola Davis](http://motto.time.com/4239239/viola-davis-diversity-in-hollywood-oscars/?iid=sr-link1), pursuing a career in acting wasn’t always easy. The [Academy Award-winning actress](http://time.com/4683341/oscars-2017-viola-davis-speech/?iid=sr-link1) gave a powerful speech about her road to stardom while accepting Harvard’s 2017 Artist of the Year Award. [According to CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/06/celebrities/viola-davis-harvard-award-speech/), the _Fences_ star felt frustrated while she was attending the prestigious Julliard School. “I spent so many years at Juilliard just wanting to beat somebody up,” Davis said. “I think it was the height of my anger; that chip on my shoulder. I’m still trying to take care of that chip on my shoulder, by the way. It was mainly because I felt my voice as an artist was being stifled.” But now, she says that her craft is “sacred” — because she can highlight others’ stories. “Because really, at the end of the day, even what I do as an artist, when I channel characters and people and their stories and those moments in their lives that we sometimes hide, that we feel like is just our mess, our shame. I want people to be seen,” she said. “I want them to feel less alone.” \[[CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/06/celebrities/viola-davis-harvard-award-speech/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4692147/viola-davis-award-harvard/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4692147/viola-davis-award-harvard/"},"headline":"Viola Davis Says She Once Had a ‘Chip’ on Her Shoulder","datePublished":"2017-03-06T17:24:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:05:03.979Z","description":"'I felt my voice as an artist was being stifled'","url":"https://time.com/4692147/viola-davis-award-harvard/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb785d0ed3b906340/6988bd210a4a22c9cd9cd2d4/viola-davis-harvard-award.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Cooney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb785d0ed3b906340/6988bd210a4a22c9cd9cd2d4/viola-davis-harvard-award.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Viola Davis Awarded Harvard Foundation's 2017 Artist Of The Year","caption":"Viola Davis Awarded Harvard Foundation's 2017 Artist Of The Year","creditText":"Natasha Moustache—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4692147/viola-davis-award-harvard/","name":"Viola Davis Says She Once Had a ‘Chip’ on Her Shoulder"}}]}] ```