It would be great to bust through and make history. But what's more important is the opportunity to continue to get roles that are complicated and wonderful, to be a part of the narrative and to get to do what our counterparts are able to do. It doesn't just stop at holding an award.

When you see what the deficit is, then you have to do something about it.

At the end of the day, nobody can tell you how to tackle failure or how to handle change. The world is very good at encouraging you to go along with the status quo and at basking in your successes. But when you hit a wall in your personal life, and you screw up, people don't give you a chance to navigate your way through it and tap into what's extraordinary about you.

I haven't seen most of what I've done. I can't even list them. Most television jobs. I haven't seen a lot.

Cicely Tyson was my inspiration to become an actor.

It's always hard to be private in public, which is what acting is because you have to do thing really emotionally naked.

When a director can give you a word that allows you to feel less tense about yourself, to make you feel like you indeed are good enough before you even get to the work, you can't ask for anything more than that.