Mike Colter Quotes

I worked at a group home for a survival job years ago, and kids who have a rough home life have always tugged at my heart-strings. I also care a lot about animal cruelty.

When you take the job, you never think about how many days you're going to take bullets. Sometimes you go on set and you're thinking, "Ah, a day when I don't have to get shot. This is going to be a nice day."

Never take anything at face value. Dare to question and seek the truth.

Things don't happen that fast in real life.

I don't have a routine, but I have used meditation to just decompress and focus.

I met some people in college and I kept cracking away until someone pointed me in the right direction.

As a male, I thought the female voice was so strong, unique, real and accessible to most females. In some way, shape or form, they felt like they could relate to it, on some level, because they went through some form of unspeakable horror like what Kilgrave did to Jessica [Jones]. That, in itself, is something that most people shy away from, even in shows that are on cable or in movies.

When you're casting, you get a page or two - just enough to do the scene. Now that you're in the world, you get the whole script.

When you look at Harlem - and I lived there almost five years - most of the people who live in Harlem are transplants. They migrate to Harlem from another place. A lot of them are from the south, so they bring those southern influences with them.

I don't have social media so I'm kind of in a bubble, but I hear there's a lot going on.

Luke Cage is using his open hand instead of a closed fist. It's a little disrespectful but it's very effective. Some people call it a pimp slap, we call it smack-fu. He's doing you a favour by hitting you with an open hand. It hurts, it renders you unconscious but you live.

I see fans all the time. They're always very complimentary and they're always very eager to talk and to share their experiences or get a selfie. They're really, really loyal. And intense.

I'm embarrassed to say that I don't have a lot of hobbies. It's not because I don't have interests, it's just that I don't have the time.

When something tragic happens in the world and I realize that, for the most part, I am powerless to stop it.

Auditions are great, and you definitely want to continue to make progress as an actor, you want to continue to see some advancement in your career. But when you get out there, you don't realize how many auditions you have to go on before you actually get work.

That's how it works in Westerns: the hero is minding his own business and trying to make a living, but he does something, the villain finds out about it and they have to have a showdown. So it's kind of a Western set to hip hop music.

I'm a very un-excitable person. I always take things with a grain of salt, I'm always very even-keeled, and I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

As professionals, we just try to keep the jokes to a minimum, when we're in a certain situation. When we're not doing that, we're joking.

History repeats itself over and over again, but most of us have short memories.

Love, for me, is always wanting the best for the other person even if it's not what's best for you.

Harlem is really a melting pot for a lot of different people.

The awkward thing is the people in the room besides us. It's not us. It's just the 20 or 30 people that are around on set, who normally wouldn't be on set. That's always interesting.

Part of acting is always just being available emotionally and open to people.

Comic book heroes are an important part of our culture.

We pride ourselves on all being unique shows.

The primary thing that I enjoy about Luke Cage is that he has a morality about him but it's conflicted. He's never sure what the right move is, but he at least contemplates it. He's a not a rash character. It's that thoughtfulness that I really identify with.

Jessica Jones is very unique, and we are all in awe of the response from the public. It seems that everyone connected with the character, and we enjoyed shooting it.

As an actor you just want to continue to work on things that you like. You can be in this business a long time and consistently working and just be totally artistically unfulfilled.

I guess it's a bit cliché, but as an actor, I really admire good writing. There are a lot of great ideas out there, but it's the execution that really makes it work.

Law enforcement has always had informants and people they've had to deal with, who walk a certain line. They're choosing between the lesser of two evils. They're befriend one person to gain access to another person, who's a bigger fish.

Sometimes when you do things right, there's no results.

I try to stay incognito as much as I can. I don't go places that people would expect to see me because I'm trying to lay low.

What I enjoyed about being in the world of Jessica Jones, as Luke Cage, is that I wasn't front and center because it was Jessica Jones' story, but it allowed me to find the character from a different perspective.

Tequila is my drink. It is my favorite alcohol, my favorite liquor because, you know, it's a stimulant and not a depressant. If I go to a party and everyone's been drinking and I don't have time to really "catch up" - I'm not trying to get drunk but I want to feel good - I drink tequila.

We're dealing with that question now, in the media. How does the judicial system work? There's never going to be a clear-cut answer, but it's a conversation and a conflict in the community. It's not a white thing or a black thing. It's a society thing and a culture thing, and we've gotta figure it out.

I haven't had ice-cream in a year, although I did have a slice of pizza. People don't realise that when you're shooting a movie it's only three months to get in shape for.

I'll get a nice little break, after doing Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. Whether I'm in [his show], I don't know, but there's The Defenders.

Some people get divorced, they leave the person for a couple of years, then they remarry. Relationships are very, very strange.

I like to take a break, but at the same time, I think most actors are not very good at sitting around doing nothing because we like to work.

I respond to powerful women. I'm not intimidated by that, I like that, it's not something I shy away from, so I don't want women who are looking for me to take care of them. To me, that's a turn-off. I respond to strong, powerful, independent women.

It's a long arc and a long storyline, and I think it leaves us in a great place to see how we interact again, whether that be for The Defenders, Jessica Jones Season 2, or whatever. We'll see. I don't know.

This show [Jessica Jones] was exploring the aftermath, and that is unique. You're sitting there going, "I know what happens. This is the aftermath." You watch her daily life and how she dealt with people, like new prospects for love or friends that were close to her, but she didn't know if she could trust them or if they were enemies.

Most of the people you look at in the early days of Harlem - the zoot suits, the music, the style of fashion, the vibrant colors - that's all influences from the south.

My family, they're not really that involved in what I do. Career-wise, they're very supportive. They're involved after the fact. I don't tell them anything usually until I'm finished filming it or mid-way through filming it.

I've learned over the years, when someone is complaining or wants to vent and has something they want to tell you, they don't necessarily want you to fix it.

Sometimes you meet someone at an inopportune moment and it doesn't work out, but then you see them again five years later and you're in different places and it's a better time.

As long as I didn't have to put on the tiara and the chains and the big yellow shirt for the whole series, I was up for anything.

I'm pretty relaxed on what people should be able to do as long as they're not hurting anybody else.