Working with Ava [ DuVernay] and Oprah [Winfrey], they're just so intimate. I feel like we're really family at this point.

I think that's really the allure of acting for me. I really want to connect with people.

When the dialogue is on point and I feel like the overall story and message is really serving something that's socially progressive, it really makes me want to be a part of it.

I feel like the stillness of Ralph Angel - him being formerly incarcerated, being a Black man, being misunderstood in this world, I felt like that brought him to a place where he thought he had to be an observer - externally and internally.

Everyone has a platform, so if we could just use that and combine what we have and know -we talk about it in private - we might as well talk about it [publicly] together.

As a kid, there [on TV] were things I wasn't aware of - insecurities while transition from teen to adult. When I was around 17 and 18, I started seeing the benefits of this world.

[Ralph Angel] was really about figuring out the humanity aspect of the character and not really paying attention to certain things like him being incarcerated or him being a father and showing that type of love and putting something before you, despite me not having kids in real life. He's vulnerable, ambitious and alive.