Viola Davis has celebrated her birthday by reflecting on her life story with a photo of her childhood home.
On Tuesday, the 55-year-old actress shared a photo of the South Carolina home where she was born, which is located on a former plantation, explaining that it is the “birthplace of my story”.
“The above is the house where I was born August 11, 1965," she captioned the photo of the rundown house. “It is the birthplace of my story. Today on my 55th year of life...I own it...all of it.”
The Academy Award winner concluded the post with a sentimental “Cherokee Birth Blessing” that reads: “May you live long enough to know why you were born.”
The post prompted an outpouring of messages for the actress, with fellow celebrities including Halle Berry, Courtney Cox and Octavia Spencer sharing their birthday wishes.
Davis later clarified in the comments under the post that she did not purchase the home on Singleton Plantation in St Matthews after her use of the word “own” prompted some confusion.
“Uhh… contrary to websites… I do not ‘own’ above house, I ‘own’ my STORY!!” the Widows star wrote. “Too abstract I guess.”
Davis previously opened up about her birthplace in an interview with Jess Cagle, the former editorial director of People and Entertainment Weekly in 2016, explaining that she didn’t live in the now-dilapidated house long “because I was the fifth child, and so we moved soon after I was born.”
“I mean, I went back to visit briefly but still not aware of the history. I think I read one slave narrative of someone who was on that plantation which was horrific,” she continued. “One hundred sixty acres of land, and my grandfather was a sharecropper.
“Most of my uncles and cousins, they’re farmers. That’s the choice that they had. My grandmother’s house was a one-room shack. I have a picture of it on my phone because I think it’s a beautiful picture.”
During the interview, the actress also recalled stories she’s heard about her family’s joy at her birth.
“My mom says that the day I was born, all of my aunts and uncles were in the house, she said, everyone was drinking and laughing, and having fun,” Davis said, adding that she “loves” the story because “it’s a great story of celebration in the midst of what you would feel is a decimated environment, but you could see the joy and the life that can come out of that, because it’s not always about things, you know.”
