We’re always trailing, as far as the amount of roles that are written for us and the films that are being made that have black characters in them. I don’t know if that’s going to change.
Now is a good time, 10 years ago would have been a good time, and 10 years from now it will still be a good time to see a dynamic, entertaining movie that’s wall-to-wall Miles Davis where the music will hopefully spark some desire to know more about the man.
I hate it when, by page 30, I know what the lead’s going to do and then what the bad guy’s gonna do. Mostly it’s just scripts by the numbers where nothing’s surprising, nothing’s interesting.
I also believe that you are what you have to defend, and if you’re a black man that’s always going to be the bar against which you are judged, whether you want to align yourself with those themes or not. You can think of yourself as a colourless person, but nobody else is gonna.
I don’t believe that the U.S. needs to take a police role. I think it needs to support African nations that have said they want to become a part of the solution.
The fun for me is to mix it all up. I would actually like to do something as far away from what I’ve just done, just for my own personal joy and growth, for what I want to do.
If people in this country think of Africa as a place with kids and flies swarming around their heads, then they won’t understand that these people are you and you are them.
I think we should all be more concerned about the environment and the effects of global warming. It will be pointless to talk about all the issues that divide us when it’s 300 degrees outside.
No, it’s not comfortable; I hate watching myself. You don’t like when you hear your voice on your voicemail; imagine having to see yourself 30 feet wide and 30 feet big.
I imagine it was much different in the 1970s. That was the Renaissance for black actors, albeit in blaxploitation movies. There was a much greater preponderance of work then than there is now.
I’ve never been a part of a film before that offers such a platform into real issues, that raises social awareness and has the potential to change things.
President Obama inherited a broken country mired in two wars, a financial crisis, a mortgage mess and more than we all probably even know about and has in my opinion brought us back from the brink. But I still see my friends in no better shape and the gap widening.