The 'How to Get Away With Murder' star became the first black actress to win Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series on Sunday night.
Viola Davis made history at the Emmys on Sunday night as the first black actress ever to win Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, but the How to Get Away with Murder star doesn’t have any time to rest on her laurels.
"Tomorrow I go back to work," Davis told ET after the awards show. "That's how I digest it, 'cause I can press the fast-forward button and I know that I'm gonna have to continue to be an actor, continue to make choices, continue to perform in a show every week."
The 50-year-old actress also noted that she will have to "continue to be a mother" every day to 3-year-old daughter Genesis, who was already in bed when Davis tried to call her after the show.
"She probably fell asleep," the actress laughed, adding, "You ask how I handle the success, this is it. People are just not impressed by me at home."
It’s a joke of course, but Davis said that she felt incredibly humbled by her award-winning night, telling ET’s Cameron Mathison that, "The only history I ever made before was a pull-up record in Central Falls."
"I grew up in such abject poverty, and for God to have brought me to this moment is kind of miraculous," Davis marveled. "It's as miraculous as a tree growing from a seed."
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Humbled, but not totally shocked, the two-time Oscar nominee admitted.
"I have to tell you when you win an award like this, you have to believe somewhere in the back of your mind you deserve it," she said, adding that her historic win was not hers alone. Davis name-dropped several prominent black TV actresses in her acceptance speech, some of them fellow nominees. "We put our work out there as women of color constantly, for so many years. It's our time."
So what’s she going to do with her new award?
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"If it were up to me I’d ship it all to my mother in Central Falls, Rhode Island," Davis told ET. "Hopefully my daughter wont break it. She'll put candy in there, probably."