I played sports year around: basketball, soccer, softball and I ran track year around, from the time I was, like, six, seven.

Before I got married, I dated the gamut.

I’ve been trying to get cast as a lesbian for years.

I’m the kind of person whose clothes are all hung up and color-coordinated, to the point where my whites don’t touch my creams.

I like directors who have worked as actors. They know the experience.

I want to be Miss USA or Miss America. I would bring the trophy back to Nebraska. My interests are agriculture and corn. Hey, I’m just riding this train as long as I can. As long as I’m having fun, I’ll do it. When it stops being fun, I’ll try something else.

After Halle Berry does her films and Queen Latifah does her films, it’s left to all the black, Latino and Asian actresses to fight over a couple of roles. I opted for some TV. There’s just not a ton of work in film.

All minorities think they’re immune, but we’re absolutely part of the one in five that gets skin cancer! It’s a myth, and myths are meant to be debunked!

Right now, I don’t have the same urges as other women when they see a baby. When I see children, I see responsibilities, which I don’t think I’m quite ready for. I feel the same about puppies. They’re cute for a second, but there’s a lot of responsibility involved.

I love TV. I love the stability of it.

When you want a break from dogs, and you take them to the kennel to the stars, no one thinks you’re a bad pet owner. But when you have kids, you can’t drop them off for three weeks without someone calling Child Protective Services!

I think if we open ourselves to all different kinds of men and all groups, we find a lot more opportunities to love.

I think I’m drawn to more villain-type characters, because it’s so cool to get to say all the things you want to say. In Hollywood, you get to this position where you have to bite your tongue so much. You take all your experiences of not being able to say what you really want to say, and channel that through your character.

I’ve dated a number of ‘mama’s boys.’

I just thought acting would be something to help out with my student loans, but my first year as an actress, I made more money than my parents. That’s when I realized it could turn into a career. After that, I put everything I had into it.

Drama can feel like therapy whereas comedy feels like there’s been a pressure and a weight lifted off of you. You come to work and you laugh all day, you go home and you feel light and there’s a certain feeling when you’re sitting with the audience and they leave after 90 minutes and it’s just pure escapism and they’re happy.

We don’t consider black, urban films as ‘indies,’ though many of them are shot for under $10 million which is kind of the definition of an indie.

What’s interesting is that producers, directors and writers tend to typecast me in terms of whatever movie they’ve seen me in most recently.

My mom is painfully sweet; she’s from Nebraska.

I’m competing with everyone, but it’s okay because they’re not aware. I can’t shut that impulse off. And I’m glad, because that impulse keeps me on the treadmill. If I didn’t have it, I would be like, “Great! Ten minutes! I’m good.” But if I’m competing, I can see what level someone’s on and I can top it.

I had been living the life that society tends to dictate for women of a certain age. You marry the person who asks you, even though he may or may not be the best one for you. Around the time that I got divorced, I had an epiphany that there is no blue ribbon or gold medal for living someone else’s life, for fulfilling someone else’s dreams. It’s doesn’t make you happy. You just end up with a life that’s not yours.

I think there’s a lot of things that occur within the African-American community, that we would prefer to stay within the African-American community – that we get a little nervous when you start having scenes or dialogue that we know is going to be viewed and heard on a national or global scale.

I love romantic comedies. They’re for me the easiest thing to do and the most natural to do. There’s nothing natural about holding an uzi hanging out of a moving van shooting at people. That’s not second nature to me, thank God.

In my career, there have been roles I haven’t taken because someone involved with the project gave me a bad vibe. I don’t care how much money is on the table: No job is worth feeling uneasy every day.

Hollywood panders to the 18-to-34 crowd. That demographic doesn’t care about race and the package it comes in. They care about the hottest chick. They just like hot chicks.

Reality TV looks more like America than movies do.

But I prefer to go to comedies. Give me Julia Roberts smiling anyday.

In Hollywood, you play a mom and instantly, you’ve got osteoporosis.

A couple of my friends started having babies, and I thought, ‘Maybe one day, with the right guy.’ I have to find the guy first.

You want to come home to a nice firm bed with the corners tucked in so you start over, like each night is like a new night.

Sometimes it’s not even a role that’s specifically written for a woman. It could be a role written for a white man or Asian man, or Latino. If it’s something that I feel I could do well, I go after it. Especially if it’s nothing that has to be gender or race specific, I’m all over it.

If my real life was half as exciting as what is reported, I would be thrilled.

I was at one time a football wife, and there is a certain level of bonding that happens between women who are the wives of football players.

As a newly married person, as much as I would love for my husband to buy into the ‘my way or the highway’ philosophy, you realize it’s all about compromising and finding some sort of middle ground that everyone can live with.

A lot of women seem to think the way to ingratiate themselves is to put down other women or backstab. That’s the quickest way to be eliminated from my life – try that with me, and you’re out.

A lot of women seem to think the way to ingratiate themselves is to put down other women or backstab. That’s the quickest way to be eliminated from my life – try that with me, and you’re out.

The black community in Hollywood is very small and close-knit. Everyone has a common goal: to make a two-hour movie in 30 days.

I truly hope that everyone gets the love, support and hugs they deserve.

Honestly Gabrielle Union’s just one big anxiety attack, between the global pandemic that the world is experiencing and waking up every day to the brutalization, the murder of black bodies…. [ it’s daily ]… the nonstop onslaught of trauma… I don’t even know if anxiety is a big enough word.

Silly me, I thought’ independent’ was like independent, but when NBC and [ production companies ] Fremantle and Syco pay for that investigation, they control it.

Boys are so much drama.

You get so afraid of failure and so afraid of losing and so afraid of not being the best that it’s not a natural drive – it’s born out of fear of failure. Which helps in Hollywood.

Dwyane is like a stage mom. He’s very hands-on. When he’s in Miami and we’re in Los Angeles, he wants to know everything, from her poops to what outfit she’s wearing.

We enjoy every moment. But days fly by in a blur of life. It’s like watching a clip in fast-forward. I’m like, ‘No, I’m still in it!’

There was a lot of pain, and a lot of disappointment. I felt like I was not only disappointing myself and my spouse, but all the people who’d hung a lot of hope on us. I felt like a complete loser and failure.

When I ask her a question, Kaavia responds with a lot of animation, and she’ll pause so you can ask her more. She follows along, but she doesn’t do baby talk. When people talk baby talk, she gives shady-baby looks.

I felt such relief. To hear her breathing and crying was a dream. We didn’t really allow ourselves to believe it until then.

I just kind of assumed that you do a movie and then you leave and you hop onto the next thing. I never thought that people are actually buddies.

I don’t get enough sleep so I always have undereye bags.

I don’t function well in chaos, whether it be my sheets or the dishwasher.

I drink a gallon of water a day.

I’m not going to change the world overnight. It’s one person at a time, and hopefully they’re people in positions of power who can help people get in those roles and really, truly embrace colorblind casting.

Hollywood needs to recognize all shades of African American beauty.

I was always in the popular crowd, but I really had atrocious teeth. I was encouraged to ‘do well in school, ’cause no one’s going to marry you!

I had to learn – since I’m divorced now and everyone is like, ‘Oh my God, you’re single, what’s going on?’ – that if I don’t like to spend time with myself, how can I ask someone else to enjoy spending time with me? I’m getting to learn how to enjoy my solitude and have a good time.

I date, but the person I date most is myself, unfortunately.

I realized I had been keeping people around even when deep down I knew they were bad for me. I had overridden myself.

You have to be resilient.

I’m just riding this train as long as I can. As long as I’m having fun, I’ll do it. When it stops being fun, I’ll try something else.

When someone who loves and cares about me compliments me, I feel more glamorous than when the flashbulbs are going off on the red carpet.

You have to develop a very thick skin.

Your world is only as small as you make it.

We all have to let go of the Prince Charming complex and realize he doesn’t necessarily exist in the package we assume he’ll come in.

We give a lot of others significance in our lives even when they don’t deserve it. It doesn’t matter if they’re family or if you’ve known them forever. If they’re not good for you, they’ve got to go.

I’ve lost a lot. I’ve lost money, and my reputation has taken a hit for taking the high road to protect my dignity, to protect children, and for other good causes. But I don’t think there’s ever too steep a price for doing the right thing.

I can’t just say one time of the year I’m going to do something different. I have to commit to a lifestyle behavioral change and just try to be a little bit better today than I was yesterday.

It’s easy to pretend ‘to be fierce and fearless because living your truth takes real courage. Real fearless and fierce women admit mistakes and they work to correct them. We stand up and we use our voices for things other than self promotion. We don’t stand by and let racism and sexism and homophobia run rapid on our watch. Real fearless and fierce women complement other women and we recognize and embrace that their shine in no way diminishes our light and that it actually makes our light shine brighter.

I decided to follow my dreams and my passions and to always have an adventure, no matter what it is.

I encourage people to ask whatever question you’re most interested in hearing the answer to.

If we can have drones, we can have brown people on TV, and the world won’t end! We need to catch up. We are painfully behind.

My wish for the world would be to end violence against women. My wish for myself would be for peace of mind.

What’s interesting is that producers, directors and writers tend to typecast me in terms of whatever movie they’ve seen me in most recently.

When you acknowledge that your vulnerability does not absolve anyone of personal accountability, you will heal from those traumas faster and more fully.

My humaness doesn’t insulate me from racism or sexism.

In Omaha, we were part of the largest African American extended family in Nebraska. In Pleasanton, we would be the chocolate chip in the cookie.

When I was a little girl, my mother always told me that if I ever got lost in a big city, “Look for the rainbow flag.” She believed in the goodness of the LGBTQ+ community, and knew there would be protection and direction there. I always found this to be true.

And anything I have accomplished, I did so not in spite of being a black woman, but because I am a black woman.

But even when you know better, it doesn’t mean you’are going to do better.

You can love what you see in the mirror, but you can’t self-esteem your way out of the way the world treats you.

Don’t save your best for when you think the material calls for it. Always bring your full potential to every take, and be on top of your job, or they will replace you.

I remember the moment I realized I was free, looking in a mirror and saying, “I choose my motherfucking self.”

If you prioritize yourself, you are going to save yourself.

Here’s to us being afraid and doing it anyway.

You know what lasts longer than beauty? Being smart.

An empress does not concern herself with the antics of fools.