Viola Davis - Viola Davis: 'I Almost Quit Acting After Opera-singing Dog Attack'

THE HELP star Viola Davis was forced to rethink her career as an actress after she was mauled by a Labrador while performing an ill-fated one-woman show on a basketball court.

The revered star spent two decades perfecting her craft before she landed her big break and she admits there were many lows - but one made her seriously think about giving up.

She tells U.S. talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, "I played an opera singer in a one-woman show and I couldn't carry a tune, and I sang 14 songs.

"One of the places I performed was in the middle of a basketball court and they did not stop playing basketball and they brought their dogs with them and one dog... jumped on me and attacked me in the middle of my aria and I thought to myself, 'You know what, I think maybe I should choose another career path!'"

And she had another desperate moment when she played a prostitute in another play: "I exposed my ta-tas (breasts)... and I was about 30 pounds heavier than I am now, but I thought I was hot stuff. And a man in the front row... (said), 'Oh my God...' and it wasn't an 'Oh my God... they were the most beautiful breasts I've ever seen,' but, 'Oh my God, this is so offensive'."