It was a given at UCSB that if there was a role that called for a person of color, it was going to be handed to me. There were certain times when maybe I didn't try as hard. Going to Yale was a way more diverse experience.
Words can't describe how one would feel in that moment after doing a test for something you really want but in your heart you don't think you have a chance of getting.
I have a lovely light blue Kate Spade wallet. It has pockets for many credit cards, business cards, health insurance cards, and a Burke Williams card for when I want to go to the spa!
I've never given my phone number to someone on the street, but when someone is a gentleman, I appreciate the compliments.
As artists, we thrive when we can express our comfort and our discomfort. If a certain scene is really challenging for us, if we're in an environment where we feel safe, we're able to do our work.
In this day and age, when there are so many people creating work online and writing their own shows, I wouldn't tell another actor, 'If you can do anything else go do that.' I would tell them to figure out the story they want to tell, to figure out what artists inspire you and why, and then figure out a way you can create that for yourself.
I come from a family of storytellers. Growing up, my father would make up these stories about how he and my mother met and fell in love, and my mother would tell me these elaborately visual stories of growing up as a kid in New York, and I was always so enrapt.
The problem of sexism is getting better, but I don't know if it's getting better fast enough. We see more roles for women that don't entirely revolve around the way in which they function in a man's life, but typically those women are almost always white, and even then, there are only a few of them.
Create something for yourself that you feel proud of, that you are in control of, that gives you a better understanding of the type of artist you want to be.
Not to say there's not good TV out there, but I think TV is better when it accurately reflects the world as it is.
I was getting in my own way. I would quit jobs and step out on hope and faith, and pray to God that I would book something that would allow me to just continue to act.
I always think - when I get mad, and people say, 'Don't be the angry black woman' - it's like, well, why not? There's so much to be angry about.
If all we remember are good things, then happiness is our baseline, and there's no longer happiness. We need other feelings in order to appreciate others.