My mother's in my life, but at the time you imagine your mom passing away, not being there ... as a kid you try to think of something that hurts you the most ... It was just a tool [in "Hardball"].

That's probably why my face was looking so crazy when I was crying [in "Hardball"] because it was some real.

You see somebody like me, as young as I was at the time, driving around the inner city of Newark, and to them [police] it doesn't make sense. I've been illegally searched [and had] my car illegally searched. [I've] been handcuffed for no reason. You get in enough of those situations.

I'm extremely blessed. There's a lot of people trying to exactly what I'm doing, but I'm a part of that 9.1 percent that's actually having their dream come true. I just don't take that for granted.

In terms of experience with the police, everybody got those. It's such a reality.

I'm not saying no to anything, at least as far as reading scripts. I don't care if it's television or films but, personally, I would say I'd like to establish myself more in film.

As I grow and get older, mature a bit, and work on my big boy voice a little bit, I definitely want to direct.