Doing films as an actor, you spend maybe 40 percent of the year doing your chosen profession. If you are on a successful TV show, you spend 80 percent of your year doing the thing you love.

To play someone who is who they are because of the happiness and contentedness that they've known in their life is interesting because of sort of how banal it is.

I was really bored and unhappy in school, and I used to act out and do horrible things.

I have so much respect for Sam [L.Jackson] that if I had questions about anything, I would call and ask him if he agreed with me before I brought it up with Craig [Brewer].

I think that I need to work on being comfortable at being normal, everyday-ish on camera. Unlike a lot of actors, I think that's the thing that I'm not so comfortable with.

It's so normal for a teenager to dress in black -- and be real unhappy and stay in your room and say sarcastic things. How could something so normal be considered morbid?

I get so nervous. I happen to be socially awkward and shy. I spent a lot of my time as an adult not going places.