I just don't want to be known as the actress who can sing. I want to be known as the singer who can act, too. It's great cross-promotion.

My mom has never been a big meddler and isn't like extremely opinionated or at least just doesn't voice it to me. She's sort of let me come into my own by myself and I think that's just a testament to what my parents did in terms of raising us.

Hope is the most exciting thing there is in life.

As terrifying as sharks are, I find it far more terrifying, the idea of being trapped on the bottom of the ocean with a ticking clock and running out of air.

There are parallels between the music and film worlds, but they're really very different. I feel like they're just two different ways to channel my creativity.

I've had the opportunity to play the drug dealer who gets gang-raped, and I'm like, "For what reason? Doing it just to do it? To just show people that I can be sexy or dark?" I don't want to do something just to make that point. It needs to happen organically, and I'm really confident it will. I'm a pretty patient person, and I'll wait until we find the right stuff.

Pneumonia is a disease that often flies under the radar of not just the public but even the global health community. It kills more children under 5 years old every year than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined.