I was this very precocious kid with a big personality. When my mother saw that modelling was something I enjoyed, she didnt dissuade me.

Musicals are finally kind of coming back to a degree, perhaps out of a sense of nostalgia.

You have to be willing to be afraid if you're going to be an artist.

Coretta Scott King was all about her pearl earrings. At one point, I'm wearing pearl earrings the size of golf balls. They're enormous! She was bold-she knew that she was the Jackie Kennedy of her community.

I come alive when I'm painting. I like to work in oils and acrylics, and the full sensory engagement and self-expression is very stimulating to me.

At the end of the day, I really go with my personal taste and with what's on the page in terms of character. But beyond that, there's a complexity about the scripts I tend to respond to. I've not lost my curiosity about how the world functions. And a script that can embody that and thematically explore bigger questions in a way which seems fresh is likely to get my attention. Frankly, I also have an eye for what will appeal to an audience, as opposed to a self-indulgent exercise that isn't taking the audience into account.

The Hollywood culture is so invasive, and I definitely wanted to be near it eventually.