I think that there's room to grow, as far as being a person of color in film. I went to the theater the other day, and there's a whole bunch of Valentine's Day movies coming out. And the only ones that you see a lot of us in are us goofing off and clowning around; it's this kind of pseudo-romantic comedy kind of thing.

Even when I was on Curb Your Enthusiasm I wasn't this "over-the-top" crazy character. It was still kind of play it straight but it was funny because the situation was funny. That's kind of how I portrayed things and I like dramas; I like to be able to - because in dramas you can laugh and joke and still be serious, be real. I like the realism of them.

I have my own method [of acting]. I come from, I've interrogated people; I come from an undercover background, so it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

I grew up in a rough environment. You want to be strong and have your presence felt out there. That attitude reflects how people see you.

The networks are different so they have a different approach. Obviously, with The Shield - that was on FX so they had a little bit more leeway as far as the dialogue was concerned and even the content and what they showed the viewers, which is a great thing. But we will push it to the limit as far as FOX will let us go; that's for damn sure.

The first day, in particular, is always one of those weird days because you get ..., you're thrown into this new trailer - here's your wardrobe.

The beauty of when you watch good television or films is that, yes, you may have a multi-cultural cast but those roles could be anybody - they could be white, they could be black. To show the world that we have more in common than we have different with each other is to me the ultimate goal of all of that. It does help unite in people's mind the thought that people are the same. Yes, there's going to be cultural differences, but for the most part, we are all in the same gang as human beings.