I feel responsible to know what I'm talking about and to actually express myself the way I choose. We have to put those messages on a global platform period. That, to me, is inspiring.

I really got attracted to the idea of touching so many people and that idea of art transcending entertainment and art and activism being synonymous.

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

As much as he's been through, he's so alive and open to change. That's what I wanted to channel and I feel that's the root of who he is. So I was still and listening to God. All of that came together to really birth this human being known as Ralph Angel.

That [Louisiana culture] was all very new to me. I read books and watched documentaries, just trying to immerse myself.

I just owe it to myself, to God and to everybody who supports me and people who don't even know me yet, to just be fully intentional and authentically real with everything I do, say and create.

Ralph Angel, for me, was about getting in touch with the similarities between the characters. I felt like he was a human being that I knew and [somebody] that I've been and am currently still exploring.