You know what lasts longer than beauty? Being smart.
What's interesting is that producers, directors and writers tend to typecast me in terms of whatever movie they've seen me in most recently.
My wish for the world would be to end violence against women. My wish for myself would be for peace of mind.
If we can have drones, we can have brown people on TV, and the world won't end! We need to catch up. We are painfully behind.
I encourage people to ask whatever question you're most interested in hearing the answer to.
I decided to follow my dreams and my passions and to always have an adventure, no matter what it is.
You want to come home to a nice firm bed with the corners tucked in so you start over, like each night is like a new night.
You have to develop a very thick skin.
You have to be resilient.
You get so afraid of failure and so afraid of losing and so afraid of not being the best that it's not a natural drive - it's born out of fear of failure. Which helps in Hollywood.
When someone who loves and cares about me compliments me, I feel more glamorous than when the flashbulbs are going off on the red carpet.
We don't consider black, urban films as 'indies,' though many of them are shot for under $10 million which is kind of the definition of an indie.
We all have to let go of the Prince Charming complex and realize he doesn't necessarily exist in the package we assume he'll come in.
There's no such thing as a healthy tan, and that's what people need to understand.
There's an inherent idea that if a Black executive producer and a Black director are going to do a movie based on a Black writer's book that everybody is going to be Black.
The guys I tended to date, you know, didn't necessarily have it altogether but I had a great time.
The black community in Hollywood is very small and close-knit. Everyone has a common goal: to make a two-hour movie in 30 days.
Reality TV looks more like America than movies do.
People think that celebs make a lot more money than we do. We look for bargains and we do a lot of stuff on our own.
My mom is painfully sweet; she's from Nebraska.
My friends are very opinionated about the people I date.
Just like I find men who talk sports who don't really know sports annoying, I think men might find women who don't really have a true passion and knowledge of sports maybe not so attractive.
In my career, there have been roles I haven't taken because someone involved with the project gave me a bad vibe. I don't care how much money is on the table: No job is worth feeling uneasy every day.
In Hollywood, you play a mom, and the next thing you know, you're on 'The Golden Girls.' They age you so fast.
In Hollywood, you play a mom and instantly, you've got osteoporosis.
In Hollywood, marriages are kind of expected to fail.
If someone lacked decency or respect, I didn't allow that person to stay in my world.
If my real life was half as exciting as what is reported, I would be thrilled.
I've dated a number of 'mama's boys.'
I've been trying to get cast as a lesbian for years.
I've always had an interest in sports across the board.
I'm the kind of person whose clothes are all hung up and color-coordinated, to the point where my whites don't touch my creams.
I'm not the type to lay out on the beach, but I do love to work out outside, and that can really take a toll on your skin!
I'm not sensitive, I'm not a weepy person.
I'm not going to change the world overnight. It's one person at a time, and hopefully they're people in positions of power who can help people get in those roles and really, truly embrace colorblind casting.
I'm just riding this train as long as I can. As long as I'm having fun, I'll do it. When it stops being fun, I'll try something else. Maybe I'll open up a chain of Popeye's Chicken.
I was at one time a football wife, and there is a certain level of bonding that happens between women who are the wives of football players.
I was always in the popular crowd, but I really had atrocious teeth. I was encouraged to 'do well in school, 'cause no one's going to marry you!'
I think if we open ourselves to all different kinds of men and all groups, we find a lot more opportunities to love.
I realized I had been keeping people around even when deep down I knew they were bad for me. I had overridden myself.
I played sports year around: basketball, soccer, softball and I ran track year around, from the time I was, like, six, seven.
I love TV. I love the stability of it.
I love horses.
I like meat and carbohydrates.
I like directors who have worked as actors. They know the experience.
I just kind of assumed that you do a movie and then you leave and you hop onto the next thing. I never thought that people are actually buddies.
I drink a gallon of water a day.
I don't get enough sleep so I always have undereye bags.
I don't function well in chaos, whether it be my sheets or the dishwasher.
I date, but the person I date most is myself, unfortunately.
I can't just say one time of the year I'm going to do something different. I have to commit to a lifestyle behavioral change and just try to be a little bit better today than I was yesterday.
Hollywood panders to the 18-to-34 crowd. That demographic doesn't care about race and the package it comes in. They care about the hottest chick. They just like hot chicks.
Hollywood needs to recognise all shades of African American beauty.
But I prefer to go to comedies. Give me Julia Roberts smiling anyday.
Boys are so much drama.
Before I got married, I dated the gamut.
All minorities think they're immune, but we're absolutely part of the one in five that gets skin cancer! It's a myth, and myths are meant to be debunked!
A lot of women seem to think the way to ingratiate themselves is to put down other women or backstab. That's the quickest way to be eliminated from my life - try that with me, and you're out.
A couple of my friends started having babies, and I thought, 'Maybe one day, with the right guy.' I have to find the guy first.
After Halle Berry does her films and Queen Latifah does her films, it's left to all the black, Latino and Asian actresses to fight over a couple of roles. I opted for some TV. There's just not a ton of work in film.
As a newly married person, as much as I would love for my husband to buy into the 'my way or the highway' philosophy, you realize it's all about compromising and finding some sort of middle ground that everyone can live with.
Drama can feel like therapy whereas comedy feels like there's been a pressure and a weight lifted off of you. You come to work and you laugh all day, you go home and you feel light and there's a certain feeling when you're sitting with the audience and they leave after 90 minutes and it's just pure escapism and they're happy.
I had to learn - since I'm divorced now and everyone is like, 'Oh my God, you're single, what's going on?' - that if I don't like to spend time with myself, how can I ask someone else to enjoy spending time with me? I'm getting to learn how to enjoy my solitude and have a good time.
I just thought acting would be something to help out with my student loans, but my first year as an actress, I made more money than my parents. That's when I realized it could turn into a career. After that, I put everything I had into it.
I love romantic comedies. They're for me the easiest thing to do and the most natural to do. There's nothing natural about holding an uzi hanging out of a moving van shooting at people. That's not second nature to me, thank God.
I think I'm drawn to more villain-type characters, because it's so cool to get to say all the things you want to say. In Hollywood, you get to this position where you have to bite your tongue so much. You take all your experiences of not being able to say what you really want to say, and channel that through your character.
I think there's a lot of things that occur within the African-American community, that we would prefer to stay within the African-American community - that we get a little nervous when you start having scenes or dialogue that we know is going to be viewed and heard on a national or global scale.
I want to be Miss USA or Miss America. I would bring the trophy back to Nebraska. My interests are agriculture and corn. Hey, I'm just riding this train as long as I can. As long as I'm having fun, I'll do it. When it stops being fun, I'll try something else.
Right now, I don't have the same urges as other women when they see a baby. When I see children, I see responsibilities, which I don't think I'm quite ready for. I feel the same about puppies. They're cute for a second, but there's a lot of responsibility involved.
Sometimes it's not even a role that's specifically written for a woman. It could be a role written for a white man or Asian man, or Latino. If it's something that I feel I could do well, I go after it. Especially if it's nothing that has to be gender or race specific, I'm all over it.
We give a lot of others significance in our lives even when they don't deserve it. It doesn't matter if they're family or if you've known them forever. If they're not good for you, they've got to go.
When you want a break from dogs, and you take them to the kennel to the stars, no one thinks you're a bad pet owner. But when you have kids, you can't drop them off for three weeks without someone calling Child Protective Services!
Within a lot of African-American households, I think, there's an idea that black men don't want to take an active participation in the lives of their children. That if they do, there has to be some sort of ulterior motive.
You come to work and you laugh all day, you go home and you feel light and there's a certain feeling when you're sitting with the audience and they leave after 90 minutes and it's just pure escapism and they're happy.
I had been living the life that society tends to dictate for women of a certain age. You marry the person who asks you, even though he may or may not be the best one for you. Around the time that I got divorced, I had an epiphany that there is no blue ribbon or gold medal for living someone else's life, for fulfilling someone else's dreams. It's doesn't make you happy. You just end up with a life that's not yours.
I'm competing with everyone, but it's okay because they're not aware. I can't shut that impulse off. And I'm glad, because that impulse keeps me on the treadmill. If I didn't have it, I would be like, "Great! Ten minutes! I'm good." But if I'm competing, I can see what level someone's on and I can top it.
I've lost a lot. I've lost money, and my reputation has taken a hit for taking the high road to protect my dignity, to protect children, and for other good causes. But I don't think there's ever too steep a price for doing the right thing.
It's easy to pretend 'to be fierce and fearless because living your truth takes real courage. Real fearless and fierce women admit mistakes and they work to correct them. We stand up and we use our voices for things other than self promotion. We don't stand by and let racism and sexism and homophobia run rapid on our watch. Real fearless and fierce women complement other women and we recognize and embrace that their shine in no way diminishes our light and that it actually makes our light shine brighter.
