Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Shakespeare is definitely my first love.
I am also producing and writing a bunch.
I've lost friends over texting because I'm so bad at it.
You have to see through one's faults before you see their need.
The horror genre is fun but I'm not sure it is quite right for me.
I read a lot of W.E.B. Du Bois, who wrote 'The Souls of Black Folk.'
Barry Jenkins just cast the right people and framed things the right way.
My goal has always been to try to live up to every ounce of my potential.
I started out doing a lot of theater, a lot of Shakespeare, classic plays.
The policies enacted during segregation are still being felt in Birmingham.
Working on Shakespeare and learning about Shakespeare was the big takeaway for me.
If someone wanted to do a biopic about me, I would like for them to consult my family.
Politically, nowadays, as we know and feel, we are similarly underrepresented and not heard.
I want to shift my career back to shows like The Knick. I prefer the classic drama structure.
I love to sing. I'm definitely not a very good singer, but when I'm in my shower I get down for sure.
I just want to play interesting characters, and I want to work with the best directors I can work with.
Whenever I have a play or opening or anything going on in my career, my parents always come up and see it.
A lot of people in the movie business don't have a point of reference for me; nobody really knows who I am.
It's not every day you get to be in a movie about Jackie Robinson, so you want to do it as right as you can.
When I was in school, and even after, I did a lot of classic plays, and I guess it sort of extended into film.
People sometimes say, "What is your dream role?" I don't really have a dream role. I'll know it when I see it.
Now, perhaps more than ever, we need more and more examples of healing. We need to learn what it takes to heal.
[Theater] has always been a big focus. I have been away from it for the past few years. I want to get back to it!
I definitely want to work with people who are artists and who are interested in being their best version of themselves.
All the craft skills that I have, I feel like I developed and honed in drama school. It's the most important thing for me.
I personally feel like black people in America have contributed so much for so long, and haven't always gotten credit for it.
I studied acting in NYU's graduate program, in which we covered everything from Ibsen and Chekov to August Wilson and David Mamet.
With 'Selma,' I grew up in Alabama, 45 minutes away from Selma. I have gone to that commemorative march many times with my parents.
I did my undergrad at Florida State, got a Bachelor's, and then I got my Masters in Acting at NYU. So I've spent a lot of time in the classroom.
I need to find those projects more often: the ones that really, really speak to me. I do better work in those situations and have a better time.
In '42,' it's like the '40s where racial equality had come into the consciousness of a lot of people, whereas in the 1900s it was sort of a new thing.
The surgeries were the hardest scenes for me because it's literally balancing so many balls in the air, at the same time, and each surgery is different.
My goal has always been to try to live up to every ounce of my potential. For me, that means working with the best people and working with the best material.
I have worked with Tarell Alvin McCraney, who is the play Moonlight is based on. He's a company member at Steppenwolf. I have done a could of his plays here.
Everybody gathered at my Aunt Hannah's house, and we sat around and talked, ate, drank and told lies. That's what people do, and I just sat there and listened.
I do enjoy history. That's one of the things that I love about acting is you get a chance to really dive into history and develop a real personal opinion about it.
I just hope to work with great people, and do things that are challenging for me and that I can be proud of and not have to hide my face about. Those are my guidelines.
I think that's what makes characters interesting - when you paint a person into a corner, and you see what they do to get out of that corner. It's what makes drama drama.
I went down and spoke to some of the people who lived in the neighborhood in Miami. At the end of the day I think my connection with Tarell [Alvin McCraney] is what helped me the most.
When you're playing Shakespeare, it forces you to think and feel and speak all at the same time, which really is what acting is. It expands your imagination and expands your size of thinking.
I've written a couple of scripts. Actually, a pilot. I'm not sure I'm allowed to say, but it's a comedy about three young men in New York City, one of whom may or may not be a romantic like me.
'The Knick' is set in New York during the 1990s, and it takes place around a hospital called The Knickerbocker. It's about a team of surgeons and nurses who are on the cutting edge of medicine.
It is that rare film [Moonlight] that comes along once in a while that catches the zeitgeist. This movie is that. I certainly have my fingers crossed that it is. Everyone needs to see this movie.
With theater, depending on the audience, the show is different every night and really requires your constant concentration. With film, it's more possible to focus for shorter, more intense bits of time.
If I find great material, or a great character, or a great director that wants to do something on TV, or whether it's in film, or whatever it is, man - as long as it's good, and on the level, I'm open to it.
I grew up in Alabama in a very small town and didn't have access to the finest of anything, really. But my mother was the kind of woman who just wanted us, me and my sisters, to be exposed to any and anything she could find.
When you live in an environment where you aren't allowed to be fully who you are, you aren't taken seriously, and you aren't respected. What that actually does to a person's confidence and psyche is really fascinating to me.
I think working on Shakespeare was a big part of my time at drama school. I'm so glad that I got to know Shakespeare and got a chance to play great parts in Shakespeare, because it really teaches you - or taught me, anyway - everything.
Things maybe take longer usually when it comes to TV - especially network TV. There are usually multiple levels that you have to go through in terms of the casting director, the producers, the studio, the network, reading with other people.
You turn up in the morning, you get through hair and make-up, and then you are on set working until it's time to go home. And I love that. Coming from the theater, you just turn up and you're ready for whatever happens. That energy really appeals to me.