There are so many brilliant, trained actors of color in America. If you just think about it, every year in the spring Julliard and NYU and Yale and hundreds of schools across the country graduate classes of trained actors, and in those classes are actors of color. So to say that there aren't enough actors of color is factually inaccurate.

People sometimes say, "What is your dream role?" I don't really have a dream role. I'll know it when I see it.

My goal has always been to try to live up to every ounce of my potential.

I had a cheat sheet because I knew Tarell [Alvin McCraney]. His movie is largely autobiographical. I knew about certain events in his life and some of the people he talks about. I had visited the place where he lived many times so I understood innately what that was.

When you're playing Shakespeare, it forces you to think and feel and speak all at the same time, which really is what acting is. It expands your imagination and expands your size of thinking.

Working on Shakespeare and learning about Shakespeare was the big takeaway for me.

The policies enacted during segregation are still being felt in Birmingham.