“The masterful work of the DP [Director of Photography] Kevin McKnight and his crew, and the layers and depths each actor goes to to ensure we the audience feel a human connection to these characters led me to sign my name on the dotted line.”

The second season of Underground does explore Canada’s role in providing a welcoming place for the thousands who were in danger of being captured and returned to their owners, and those who escaped by way of rerouting beyond the American borders.

Remakes are awesome, especially when it honors yet adds a new component or dimension to the original.

It’s no mistake that Harriet Tubman is revisiting us, in different forms, right now, as we travel through a very contentious time in the world.

The show [Shots Fired] is an autopsy of our criminal justice system.

Understanding that what it is that you’re doing isn’t limited to the roles and the rejection, it’s bigger than that, it’s about your purpose in life.

I became an instant fan of the show [Underground] seconds into the opening frames of the pilot.

Study and know that we are always a student of the craft well after we’ve completed any course of study… and approach the work as a servant, not a star.

Learning about all these elements and aspects of her was mind-blowing and educational for me as a woman because I have to sometimes remind people that have known me for years.

But truthfully, we have so many stories, lives and subjects to explore that I’d love to keep pushing towards new knowledge.

One or the other she was going to have by any means necessary.

Rosa Parks was primed, she had the Civil Rights Movement behind her, she didn’t just decide to sit on the bus, it was strategic.

I felt validated and valued , and here was this woman [Whoopi Goldberg ] inside my television screen who gave me a voice.

When that drone shot carried us through the main house with Rosalie, played so unflinchingly-brilliantly by Jurnee Smollett Bell, I signed on for the ride.

I had praying grandmothers who bathed me in “The Word” and filled the atmosphere with worship.

I walked away from the craft because I wanted to know that this is what I was supposed to do with my life.

That is a huge part of my excitement, the fact that this generation will get such a beautifully-detailed introduction to a hero and icon that has largely lived in a few pages of our history books and in one-dimensional photographs.

My main goal as an actor, with my craft or whatever poncy way you want to say it, is to always take the audience with me.

What strikes me about Jesus is that he is a remarkably true person; he never changes his personality to fit in with whatever crowd he finds himself. He is simply himself, and he never plays to his audience.

Most of what’s tricky about comedy is the perception of it and the audience’s expectation.

There are only a few genres, horror and comedy, where you can get that immediate feedback from the audience.

Any show that’s bringing in a young audience is doing a good thing, because that’s the only way that theater will continue to grow.

I think the British audience might be more open-minded with some of my imagery and weird choices.

There are jokes I tell in the show that don’t get laughs unless I am in front of an audience of critical thinkers.

Hollywood has to appeal to the broadest audience, and when it comes to most social and economic issues, America is progressive. Because of that, the messages that are in Hollywood movies tend to be, for instance, pro-environment.