You can be very independent, but admit to wanting somebody close to you and that’s what me and my wife have. We don’t need each other but we want to be with each other and I think it’s important to educate the kids with that.
Everybody goes through obstacles and problems and issues and turn their backs on people that we are fond of and love just because we hurt; and everybody goes through that.
I love the fact that we, as black people, carry our faith with us. We share it and embrace it and love it and talk about it because we talk about everything else and why not that and that was the first impression that I had that really touched me.
I came to America because of a tennis scholarship. I really wanted to get away because I was really frustrated about my injury so my mother said, “Go to America for four months and just open your eyes and see that there’s more things than tennis.” That’s what happened.
I don’t care if you are religious or not and I think the message is that at the end of the day, everybody has to mature and everybody has to heal and mend their own injuries, emotional injuries, on their own pace.
We are willing to weather the storm of multiple failures to achieve a goal. We’re so convinced in the destination that we are able to let go of the reins and give it to God.
I was a professional tennis player in my teens. I played mostly in Europe. I was top 10 in the world in juniors, and then I messed up my back. I had three herniated discs and that put a stop to it.
We shoot 12 to 14 hours a day. To do all that physical stuff yourself, you have to be on a nutritional plan. I have six or seven meals a day. I eat every hour and a half, and make sure it’s all clean. I have absolutely no sugar at all.
I was looking to show people I could act. I was looking for something that would take me away from the whole hunk riding off into the sunset thing that people wanted me to play after Brown Sugar.
Sometimes in the black culture, being raised as an independent woman is misconstrued as someone who doesn’t need a man. I think that’s wrong. I think we all need someone.
I went back and researched the history of gospel; where it came from, slavery times, communicating with each other without their master knowing what they are saying, and that gospel artists view themselves differently.
Let’s say black, the whole black religious experience, here, is very impressive to me, because when I first arrived I realized that people carry their faith with so much pride.
Colloquialism is the toughest part of what we do, as foreign actors, because there are certain sayings that you guys have that absolutely don’t make any sense.
We have relationships and know the exact outcome with that person because we don’t deal with ourselves and don’t deal with our issues and end up being attracted to the same person or the person is attracted to our energy.
When you work as actors in this business, you spend a lot of time apart. That’s why a lot of marriages fail. It’s not because of Hollywood, it’s because you don’t spend time together.
