Viola, 57, quickly chimed with her own set of fears she’s faced since becoming a mom, sharing a story in particular that resonated with their conversation.
“Jennifer, I locked my kid in the car, and it was sweltering hot outside,” she told the Silver Linings Playbook star. “I had 50 million things on my plate. My daughter was in the back. She’s happy, and I’m just so stressed out going to Target. I love Target. I walk out of the car, shut the door, and realize I don’t have my keys.”
Recalling throwing herself “on the concrete,” Viola, who shares daughter Genesis, 12, with Julius Tennon, continued, “I screamed. You would think I was in a Greek tragedy. ‘My baby! Jesus!’ And then I saw these two men. I grabbed their necks and said, ‘My baby is in the car! My baby!'”
“And then what do I have in my hand? My phone,” the How to Get Away With Murder star noted. “So the two men whose necks I’ve grabbed, they said, ‘Ma’am, you just have to call 911.’ And I said, ‘Oh, OK.’ So I called 911, and I proceeded to scream at the operator. Every expletive you can imagine came out of my mouth. They took her out of the car.”
Viola added, “And the reason why I’m telling you this story is it literally was seconds.”
