Geena Davis grew up a sheltered New England girl raised by frugal, old-fashioned parents who banned everything but Disney. She learned early that you “never complained, never made a fuss.” That belief nearly cost her life during a terrifying car ride with her 99-year-old great-uncle and later kept her silent after a neighbor molested her while she worked a newspaper route.

The fear, shame, and confusion followed her into adulthood. Politeness became survival, hardening into a rule she lived by: “don’t take up space, don’t speak.” For years, that silence shaped how she moved through the world and the industry she would eventually enter.

Despite that, Davis pushed forward, transforming herself from catalog model into a major Hollywood presence. She broke through with roles in Tootsie, Beetlejuice, The Accidental Tourist, and reached cultural immortality with Thelma & Louise. Even when Hollywood began sidelining her at 40, she refused to disappear.

As roles slowed, she reshaped her purpose. She became a mother in midlife, determined to protect her children from the exploitation she understood too well. She also founded the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, confronting industry bias with research, data, and persistence.

Now 69 and preparing to return in Netflix’s The Boroughs, Davis stands as proof that someone once described as “too polite to live” can ultimately rewrite the script, reclaim space, and speak on her own terms.