I was just so honored to play the role of Cinderella and to just be the first African-American princess, that's just historic for me, that's such a mark in my life and my career and then the bonus of just working with my favorite person in the whole world, Whitney [Houston], like her voice just did something to my spirit.

When I was 17, my producer Rodney Jerkins was working with Michael Jackson at the time. He knew how much I wanted to meet Michael Jackson, so he says, 'Would you like to come and meet him?' I'm like, 'Are you serious? Of course I want to meet Michael Jackson! Where do I meet you? Where do we come?'

I wanna sing about something that's sexy and edgy.

I definitely felt like I needed a break, because when you do so much, you're not able to appreciate the things that you accomplish.

Just staying true to yourself and staying true to your passion. Following your gut.

That's the beautiful part about acting - you get to play somebody other than yourself. So, I'm open to people who can't sing, people who can, people that sing a little bit, or people that sing a lot.

And I'm looking at him like, 'Oh my God. This is Michael Jackson'. I fainted, blacked out - like seriously blacked out.