Actor

You can't just look like one culture and expect to inspire a multitude of people. That doesn't work over time. Everybody wants somebody to look up to that looks like them so they can truly believe in that reality for themselves.

I want to have a resume that is substantial enough to hold itself as respectful.

My brother does a series of movies called 'The Purge,' and they have the third one coming out this year, and then also he'll be starring in the second season of 'Secrets and Lies.' We want each other to win because we are a team, and this is how we've been since day one. That's the end game for all of us in the Hodge house.

As an actor, it's very rare that you get a choice in a matter. But you're always looking for something that has some gravitas.

You don't ever want to seem less than a person.

For someone like MC Ren, who is still alive and I can go talk to, that's more of a niche challenge because I do have to match his energy, and I do have to pay homage to who he is as a person, but that just comes with research. And the difference there is I can do the research there right on the spot. I can just go ask him.

Surviving the elements is working, but being on set and having to do a scene and being in a room with the same people who you actually enjoy and respect, your day project was easy.

A new setting is amazing cause it's new for the team, and it's new for our characters. It's a breakaway from the normal deal. You get so tired, locked into a show for so many years. You get used to doing the same thing. A little shake-up and change is good.

For some reason, I think that I'm not doing enough work. People are like, 'You're on a series right now,' but I'm always like, 'Yeah, but I can do more!'

I'm not a starstuck dude. I've been in this game too long for that, but I do respect and acknowledge real work and real work ethic.

I can literally count on one hand how many slave stories have gotten notoriety over the past few years.

What you do does matter. And people do remember it and feel it.

Every job you do, somebody's looking at it. You're leaving an impression on somebody. What is going to be your footprint?

When you say 'diversity,' the term has been denigrated over the years because it has been used as a crutch.

You're living with these characters for years and years, you need to have a lock on who they are as people, what they like, what they don't like, what they experience, and what they go through.

With any good projects, I feel like the off-screen chemistry factors on-screen. It's great when you don't have to force it, but when it's not there, you better focus on getting there because, as we live with these characters, we spend more time with one another than we do our families at home.

For me personally, the way I've been trained, just through life experience - the harder something is, the harder you have to work for it, the more worthwhile it is, and you just have to know that going in.

These superhero movies are starting to give more love to not only black characters but also to more female characters, which is necessary because you have boys and girls of all colors who are looking at these superheroes saying, 'I want to be that. I want to look like that. Show me somebody that I can automatically connect with.'

I think the knowledge of where you come from gives you more of an affinity for understanding different cultures and learning.

It's crazy how intelligent kids can be at a very young age and how they know what they know.