What I was interested in [Fruitvale Station ] was one guy and his life and how that related to all of our lives and the fact that it ended unnecessarily and what the fallout from that was.

It may not happen in my lifetime, but if I can play a part in moving things along, then I feel I've done a good job.

In many ways for black actors there's been two leading guys: It's Will Smith vs. Denzel [Washington].

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

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.

Phone calls are much more personal than texting and then when you get a girl on the phone, it's like you ask a question and you get a response back. For a text message, they can read it and get back to it whenever they want to. So that makes a difference, almost like a power play in a way.

For me, with me, making a film is always about humanity.