Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I'm not afraid to work.
I would love to play Jimi Hendrix.
Colonialism is the cousin of slavery.
I studied at Howard. I studied at Oxford.
Nobody has to give me permission to write.
I'm not so keen on letting my car drive itself.
I can definitely dance, but pedestrian dancing.
I might have had too many friends in my twenties.
I don't have a smart house. My house is very dumb.
A superhero movie is only as great as its villains.
I got scars from every film I've done, every TV show.
There's nothing more stressful than your stomach growling.
Guys are natural problem solvers - they like to have strategies.
As a director, it is important to understand the actor's process.
As an African-American actor, a lot of our stories haven't been told.
The best advice about getting older? Just be thankful you're not dead!
I can't even imagine something being more fun than playing James Brown onstage.
When it comes down to it, I'd rather have an action figure than a Golden Globe.
One of the first things I was taught as an actor was, 'Don't judge the character.'
They should probably have a James Brown aerobic tape. You would lose a lot of weight.
People don't want to experience change; they just want to wake up, and it's different.
I just think people have been very gracious and welcoming me on set, and even off set.
I'm not really interested in being a superhero. That's not a box I've been trying to check off.
There are some stories I want to tell that I think it'd be cool to see an African-American dude do.
You have to cherish things in a different way when you know the clock is ticking, you are under pressure.
I think the most stressful time of my life was when I was in New York, and I didn't have money to pay my rent.
I'd taken, like, maybe some African dance classes a couple of times, but I wasn't a musical theater person at all.
I think there's a difference between a working actor, a movie star and a celebrity. They're all three different things.
We live in a world where people can ridicule you at the push of the button. They can question you at the push of a button.
When I met Rachel Robinson for the first time, she is a regal woman, and she was like a grandmother in that first meeting.
I don't read reviews, but I do get feedback from my peers and people I know, like other actors and directors and producers.
When you play characters, you shouldn't just be putting on their characteristics - you should be finding it inside yourself.
The industry looks for white actors and actresses, but it's not the same for black actors. We have to really put the work in.
Sometimes when you're acting, you only need a little bit of something to sort of channel or, you know, transport into a place.
I thought I would draw or paint or be an architect. I was always drawing portraits. My mom put me in art classes in the summer.
When you're doing a character, you want to know the full landscape. You want to know them spiritually, mentally and physically.
People have said, 'You don't need to do any more biopics. You don't need to play any more real people.' I don't agree with that.
I wasn't a comic book geek as a kid. I read some, but it was just like, "Oh, I have this comic book here." It wasn't like I was collecting them.
I wasn't a comic book geek as a kid. I read some, but it was just like, 'Oh, I have this comic book here.' It wasn't like I was collecting them.
The only difference between a hero and the villain is that the villain chooses to use that power in a way that is selfish and hurts other people.
I think you realize how much you need to have people that you love. It's not as much about them loving you - it's about you needing to love people.
Each movie you do about a real person is like a painting, and you choose certain things in the painting that you want to pull out and you want to show.
I might have had too many friends in my twenties. I probably said yes too much, and then I had to learn how to say no. How to get away in order to work on stuff.
You're not free unless you can show the good and the bad, all sides of them. So to me, when I play a character, it's important that I can show every aspect of them.
For me, being a complete artist means not necessarily just being in front of the camera, but being behind the camera or being the originator or creator of something.
I watched movies, obviously, just like anybody else, but there was nothing to make me think, 'I'm going to go to L.A. and become a movie star,' or anything like that.
I majored in directing. However, I did spend some time at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, so I am somewhat well-versed in African Studies.
Actors can have a fair amount of hate for each other, so when another actor says, 'You did your thing,' or 'That was inspiring,' you can't really ask for more than that.
It was a big thing for me to read black writers. 'Fences,' by August Wilson. James Baldwin's 'Amen Corner.' 'The Fire Next Time.' 'The Autobiography of Malcolm X,' of course.
The projects that I end up doing, that I want to be involved with in any way, have always been projects that will be impactful, for the most part, to my people - to black people.