WATCH: Viola Davis Takes Home #SeeHer Award at Critics’ Choice and Gives Powerful Acceptance Speech

SANTA MONICA, CA – DECEMBER 11: Actress Viola Davis accepts Best Supporting Actress for ‘Fences’ onstage during the The 22nd Annual Critics’ Choice Awards at Barker Hangar on December 11, 2016 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Viola Davis came through with a word at the Critics’ Choice Awards Sunday night.

The Fences and How to Get Away with Murder star took home the first-ever #SeeHer Award, an honor that recognized her work furthering the portrayal of three-dimensional women onscreen.

Davis thanked the crowd before joking, “It’s hard to accept being a role model for women when you’re trying to lose weight.”

After a pause, she continued, “I’ve always discovered the heart of my characters by asking, ‘Why?’ You know, when I was handed (How to Get Away with Murder character) Annalise Keating, I said, ‘She’s sexy, she’s mysterious.’ I’m used to playing women who gotta gain 40 pounds and wear an apron. So, I said, ‘Oh god, I gotta lose weight. I gotta learn to walk like Kerry Washington in heels. I gotta lose my belly.’ And then I asked myself, ‘Well, why do I have to do all that?’”

She didn’t. The “privilege of a lifetime is being who you are,” she said. And her leading role on ABC’s Murder helped her to see the power in her identity and her imperfections.

“At 10:00 every Thursday night … you come into my world and you sit with me, my size, my hue, my age, and you sit and you experience,” she said. “And I think that’s the only power I have as an artist, so I thank you for this award and I do see her — just like I see me.”

Source: USA Today | Jaleesa M. Jones