What helps me is yogic breathing, dropping my spiritual level where I am really, really clear that I am playing a character.

I love the smell of fried chicken.

Who told you to step on my sneakers? Who told you to walk on my side of the block? Who told you to be in my neighborhood?

It's certain that the death of an actor can be on a television screen playing the same thing every week.

People who have not done their research on me do not know that I am European, born in Copenhagen, Denmark to an Italian father from Napoli and a mother from Alabama who was singing opera and went to Europe, met my dad, fell in love, and then moved back to Rome, where I was raised, between Rome and Hamburg.

I want a body of work; I want a good story after a good story.

As human beings, when we're young, we're not jaded. As we grow older, we begin to take on ideas of our parents, family of origins and that changes us. We become less fluid sometimes. So for me, I look for roles that are uplifting in many ways - no matter what the race or color of the role is. I want to go beyond that and try to share what I think my gift is and that is we all have this gift of choice. We just don't sometimes realize we have that choice.