Viola Davis felt like a "princess" after her Oscar win

Asked how she felt after taking home the prize, she told E! News: "It's wonderful, glorious. I felt like a princess. I never feel like a princess you know except for my husband when I got married I felt like a princess. It was just you know a culmination of dreaming big and your dreams being bigger than your circumstances."

In her acceptance speech, Viola discussed her humble beginnings and revealed how she always wanted to "be somebody".

She said: "I'm going to try not to cry now [and] be cheesy. I can't believe my life. I grew up in poverty. You know, I grew up in apartments that were condemned and rat infested, and I just always sort of wanted to be somebody.

"I just wanted to be good at something. And so this is sort of like the miracle of God, of dreaming big and just hoping that it sticks and it lands, and it did. Who knew? So I'm overwhelmed."

And Viola - who has five-year-old daughter Genesis with her husband Julius Tennon - went on to praise her parents for letting her pursue her dreams.

She said: "You know, someone told me years ago, they said, 'You have the best parents.' And I said, 'I do?' And they said, 'Yeah, because they're okay with just letting you fly. They're not stage parents.' And I think that's the biggest gift my parents gave to me is to kind of allow me to live my own life. They weren't living their dreams through me."