I was on a TV show when I was 13, and I had a tutor for high school. Everyone was like "Oh, you're missing out on the high school experience," so I'd go with my cousins to parties where there would be a keg and people doing body shots and playing quarters. I was like, What a waste of time. I didn't want to be doing E [ecstasy] and making out with a guy three years older than me who's a loser.

Nanotechnology is really interesting to me. Stuff to sort of make our world a better place, and a cleaner place, through science. And it also explains things that are happening. I've always been into it.

I think the world is ready for people of color to take on more heroic and leading roles, and not always be the sidekick, the nemesis or any sort of stereotype of what a person of color can play typically in a Hollywood picture.

My approach to wellbeing is to not be so critical and so hard on myself, and also to not think that I have to conform to other people's ideas of beauty, and to be okay with what made me feel good. I think it took me a while to get there.

I went through puberty really early, when I was 11. It makes you feel weird - you know, like your uncle is now hugging you a little bit longer than he used to. I think we all go through wanting to go back - you're not sure you're ready for that body.

Some [actors] are really a pain in the ass today. I held out on getting an assistant forever because I didn't want to seem demanding... or like a pain in the ass. I didn't want someone working for me to hate me.

The time I'm not spending with my kid has to be worth it, so when I sat down with my agents after I was ready to go back to work, I told them: It's all about the directors.