I feel like I barely survived Django (Unchained) emotionally - the violence, hearing the N-word every day. It cost me a lot psychologically, but it was worth it to tell that story.

If I ever have a family one day, everything else will pale in importance to that.

I'm not interested in living in a world where my race is not a part of who I am. I am interested in living in a world where our races, no matter what they are, don't define our trajectory in life.

About a year ago I got really exhausted from reading bad scripts and I know that I am a writer and that I have stories to tell, so I thought, 'Let's do this!' So I'm co-writing a screenplay now with another screenwriter and loving it. Absolutely loving it. And I would like to be the producer on the project and of course the lead is me.

I really love research. It's one of the things I love most about my job. I feel like it's me in the lab cooking up the character.

I think everything in life happens for a reason. I always think there's room for me to improve as a person.

Learn to embrace your own unique beauty, celebrate your unique gifts with confidence. Your imperfections are actually a gift.