I'm lucky that I got to start acting when I was so young, and people put me in these movies. A lot of people don't get to play these parts because they start a little older.

When romance is done well in a movie, its awesome.

Most books and movies that are handed to teenagers are filled with stereotypes.

I have learned a lot from jazz. I compare good acting to jazz music. The more you study and prepare as an actor, the more equipped you are to live in the moment. Just like the gifted musicians in my dad's quartet, it takes a courageous actor to be free.

Jazz is smooth and cool. Jazz is rage. Jazz flows like water. Jazz never seems to begin or end. Jazz isn't methodical, but jazz isn't messy either. Jazz is a conversation, a give and take. Jazz is the connection and communication between musicians. Jazz is abandon.

I've been kind of lucky. I've always just kind of followed whatever my passion was, and that seems to have led me to better places than if I had followed some career trajectory, which I wouldn't even know how to start.

Jazz is a constant theme in my life. My father is a jazz pianist, and from an early age I have been surrounded by it.