"How to get Away with Murder" cast Viola Davis is apparently ashamed of her past as she gushed over Meryl Streep.

In the article from MailOnline, it was revealed that "How to get Away with Murder" cast Viola Davis has a very sad past living in abject poverty, one that robbed her of her childhood in Central Falls, Rhode Island.

"I sacrificed a childhood for food and grew up in immense shame," she said.

"I was one of the 17 million kids in this country who didn't know where the next meal was coming from. And I did everything to get food," she said.

"I've stolen for food, I've jumped in huge garbage bins with maggots for food," she added. "I have befriended people in the neighborhood who I knew had mothers who cooked three meals a day for food."

Meanwhile, "How to get Away with Murder" cast Viola Davis couldn't help but gush over Meryl Streep whom she co-starred in the 2008 film "Doubt" along with the late Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams.

"When I got that role, I thought I had won the lottery - I cannot even tell you. Meryl Streep is the greatest actress because you can see so many different emotions going on in her eyes. ... It's a joy as an artist," she told ABC News.

During filming, she learned that Meryl Streep never thought that she was above anybody even if she deserved her iconic status.

"I see her consciously make that effort knowing what her responsibility is from the moment she steps on. And she does it as much as she can and I respected that and honored that," she said, adding that Meryl Streep always asks for opinions from her co-star and the crew in how to make a scene better.

And "How to get Away with Murder" cast Viola Davis is bringing those lessons to the set of her new TV series. "I know that I set the mood and the groundwork and foundation in which people have to create and I gotta tell you the person I learned that from is Meryl Streep," she revealed.