“I think sometimes you have to see a physical manifestation of your dream. Otherwise you have to hope, pray and try to conjure something in your mind to feel like it’s possible.”

It feels really good to embrace exactly who I am and be my sexy, to be my sexualized, to be my woman.

And this is what was fascinating to me about ‘The Help’; they were ordinary people who did extraordinary things.

If the opportunity is not out there for you to play it, then you don’t see it.

If the opportunity is not out there for you to play it, then you don’t see it.

If the opportunity is not out there for you to play it, then you don’t see it.

They say the two most important days in a person’s life were the day you were born and the day you discover why you were born.

They say the two most important days in a person’s life were the day you were born and the day you discover why you were born.

They say the two most important days in a person’s life were the day you were born and the day you discover why you were born.

I think sometimes what people miss about black people is that we’re complicated.

Any actor will tell you, as soon as your ego and your vanity come into the mix, it destroys your work. Completely destroys it.

I want to span different genres. I want to be able to transform. I want to be able to be sexy, and funny, and quirky, and all the other things that I am. And I feel that the best way that I can achieve that is by producing.

That’s why there’s so much bad acting out there, because you could see actors watching themselves.

I am not a glam woman – this definitely is a mask I put on for the public.

Self-deprecation is not an answer to keeping one’s balance. I think that it’s very damaging.

Ordinary people who are just kind of just going about their lives are transformed into heroes because they have the courage to put their voices out there. And I think that’s a powerful message in this time of political strife.

[I listen to] “Uptown Funk”, Bruno Mars, sometimes even Nina Simone and Adele. Whatever comes up, whatever floats my boat, whatever makes me tap into something in me to just decompress – I listen to that.

In the 60s, if you wanted to be an actor, you couldn’t do just one thing.

I understand that anything actors are doing, good or bad, is motivated by fear.

Jeff Bridges is one of my favorite actors in the history of ever.

some actors seek parts similar to their personalities. But, I prefer undergoing a metamorphosis that depends on the role .

I don’t believe in leaving a scene in because it was really hard to shoot, or because it’s the reason you took the movie, or because you always wanted to work with an actor . . . If it’s not making the movie work, get rid of it.

Like the actor, authority has faith in its false whiskers. But its deepest faith is in the human illusion. People will hang on to illusion as eagerly as life itself.

As an actor there’s no autonomy, unless you’re prepared to risk the possibility of starving.

I was fortunate as a young actor, to go straight to the RSC, where I learned that being an actor can bring with it wonderful responsibilities.