Being an actor is wonderful and it’s a lot of fun, but eventually you look old and you can’t fit this or that. It’s important to have other skills, be able to do other things, and to really learn how this business works and what it thrives on.
Your body is your temple, it’s your home, and you must decorate it.
I was born to stand out. I don’t care whether or not people will find me attractive on screen. That’s not why I became an actor. I know that more and more with each new role.
They try to paint the picture that I was this downtrodden, ugly girl who was unpopular in school and in life, and then I got this role and now I’m awesome. But the truth is that I’ve been awesome, and then I got this role.
In the seventh grade, I was about to leave wearing a jumper, when my mom said she could see my panty line. So I just wore stockings. That day I broke my ankle, and the EMS cut my tights off. I got a full cast with no stockings on and no panties.
I learned to love myself, because I sleep with myself every night and I wake up with myself every morning, and if I don’t like myself, there’s no reason to even live the life.
One day I had to sit down with myself and decide that I loved myself no matter what my body looked like and what other people thought about my body. I got tired of hating myself.
I don’t think my brand of self-confidence and self-assuredness can come from an outside source. It’s got to come from me.
I can’t go to sleep unless I’ve watched at least two episodes of American Dad on Hulu or iTunes. It just feels familiar. It’s like a lullaby.
Well, I was a big fan of the book and therein a huge fan of the girl Precious. And so I felt like I knew this girl. I felt like I’d grown up alongside her. I felt like she was in my family. She was my friend and she was like people I didn’t want to be friends with.
Well, I’m certainly glad that I was nominated for an Oscar. There is certainly a respect that comes with that nod. Also, a compliment that comes with it, too. Not that I really know what I’m doing. In a lot of ways I feel like some child on set, or like a kid that snuck in the back door.
I’ve grown up with girls that are like Precious. I’ve grown up with people that are like everyone that I read about in that book. And so years later, when I was given the role, I just felt a huge responsibility to show the reality of that situation and to show that we’re not making it up.
I complain about my life. I used to complain about boys or not being able to drive or failing a test. Now I complain about boys, not being able to drive, and leaving home so much.
It’s so weird to turn on a switch and be the role model for all women, for all African-Americans. That doesn’t happen that easily. It just doesn’t. And so I don’t act up in public and I don’t do anything weird – because my sisters are watching me, not because the world is watching me.
I have a birthmark on the inside of my left knee that resembles an upside-down sea horse.
Just relax. When I was younger, I made myself the victim of catastrophic thinking. Anything that went wrong was the end of the world. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned to stop myself and say, ‘Hey babe, calm down. Tomorrow there will be sun.’
I’m not a big fan of doing what my mother wants me to do, like any daughter.
It doesn’t have anything to do with how the world perceives you. What matters is what you see.
One day I decided that I was beautiful, and so I carried out my life as if I was a beautiful girl.
I am the only consistent person in my life and so I better like myself, and I better love myself. And I really better know that I’m as beautiful as anyone else.