I consider myself conscious of how we're treated, and sometimes I can be a feminist.

I never went in thinking, "You're an African-American woman, so you're never going to win." I was just in career doing beauty pageants for the experience, and to show my brains and talent and help break stereotypes. It wasn't like, "Oh, I'll become a star. I'm beautiful." I never thought I was pretty. I couldn't even put on eyelashes or makeup. When you come from an environment that's military, and they don't stress that topic of aesthetics or beauty pageants and makeup, there are a lot of things you just don't have that city girls have.

The African-American community is not monolithic. It's liberal and conservative.

I will not be on this planet. I may come back in another form, and you know, I'll come back as a white man.

I tell actresses, "If you're too tall, if you're too fat, you're not going to work. I don't care how talented you are." It's a business, and sex sells.

I don't want to be an actress, because I think that they have to be really pretty, and I'm not.

My passion is to tell stories that reflect humanity.