Viola Davis reveals why she jumped out of a plane to one-up her daughter’s nanny
Viola Davis isn’t keen on jumping out of planes — unless she’s trying to impress her daughter.
The 59-year-old “How to Get Away with Murder” actress appeared on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” April 10 to promote her new action movie “G20,” released that same day.
Halfway through their conversation, host Seth Meyers brought out a photo of Davis standing in front of a helicopter while at the film’s premiere.
The photo sparked a funny memory about a time when Davis spontaneously jumped out of a plane.
“You know, they wanted me to get in the helicopter,” she said of the photo. “I said, I’m not getting in the helicopter. But at the same time, I’ve jumped out of a plane.”
“What kind of sense does that make?” she joked.
When asked if she had any regrets about jumping out of the plane, Davis said she had “many moments” where she regretted it.
So, why did she do it?
“I did it because we were on a big vacation and my nanny came. Beautiful girl. Molly,” Davis recalled. “And my daughter, she jumped, and Molly jumped out of the plane.”
Davis shares a 14-year-old daughter named Genesis with her husband, Julius Tennon.
“And my daughter was like, ‘Molly is so brave. Molly jumped. I love Molly,’” Davis continued, admitting she felt a twinge of jealousy as a result. “Mama could jump out of the plane.”
In an effort to impress her daughter — and one-up her daughter’s nanny — Davis decided to jump.
“So I strapped on, I said, ‘I’m going up there.’ And as soon as I was up there, I was like, ‘What...was I thinking?’” she joked.
Davis and Tennon met on the set of the TV show “City of Angels” in 1999. Davis appeared in all 24 episodes of the show, while Tennon appeared in the first and ninth episodes of Season 1.
The couple tied the knot in 2003 and adopted their daughter in 2011, per People.
Davis is also the stepmother of Tennon’s two other children — daughter Sheavanda, born in 1976, and son Duriel, born in 1979 — whom he shares with his ex-wife Sheryl Arnold.
In an April 7 interview with “Good Morning America,” Davis revealed the heartfelt reaction her daughter had after watching her new film “G20.”
“She was so excited. She kept saying, ‘Oh my goodness. Mom, Mom, you’re golden, mama. You’re golden!’ And she cried. She laughed,” Davis told co-anchor Michael Strahan.
“I loved being the hero to my teenage daughter,” she continued. “Because usually in these teenage years, you just disappear. They become zombies, and you become anything other than a hero.”
“Her sitting there watching me like that... It just, yeah. It was everything,” Davis concluded.
“G20” is available to stream exclusively on Prime Video, as of April 10.
