What is a superhero? They're supposed to represent hope, opportunity, and strength for everybody.
I think that my humble beginnings were very deliberate, and I'm grateful for them because I'm not sure I would see my achievements the same way if they were handed to me. I'm not sure my work ethic would be the same.
I was in public school until third or fourth grade, and after that, I was homeschooled. I was homeschooled until I was 14, and then when I was 14, I began attending college. Mom was not playing about that education.
Every single step, although I couldn't see it, was a step forward and built to where I am now.
When you do learn these things, when you understand what inclusion is, then we can accomplish greater things together.
New Orleans is New Orleans. It's a great city and fun and great food. It's one of those cities that when you are working hard hours like we work, you have to do as much as possible to stay out of trouble. Not much of a problem for me, but in New Orleans, trouble tries so much to find you.
My sister is raised to know her value and to know that she stands behind no man. You know, when she gets a husband, you stand side by side, equal partnership. You stand behind no one cause you have to lift each other up. You can't do that if you're 30 percent of the value in your relationship or the household.
My approach is always the same. I try to be as honest as possible. Find the real honesty and humanity in the character because even a fictional character is supposed to feel real. And my job is to find that reality and bring it to the screen.
'Die Hard' was a really awesome experience, but I was too young to understand what a big film it was.
For me personally, the way I've been trained, just through life experience - the harder something is, the harder you have to work for it, the more worthwhile it is, and you just have to know that going in.
I'm not a starstuck dude. I've been in this game too long for that, but I do respect and acknowledge real work and real work ethic.
You have a plantation where you have 10 white people and you have about 50 or 60 black people. The automatic thought was, 'Why didn't they raise up? Why didn't they overpower? They had the numbers.' But really these people, their hope was broken. Their sense of love was broken. Their appreciation for who they were was broken.
For someone like MC Ren, who is still alive and I can go talk to, that's more of a niche challenge because I do have to match his energy, and I do have to pay homage to who he is as a person, but that just comes with research. And the difference there is I can do the research there right on the spot. I can just go ask him.
I've been a writer since I was 13. I've been writing scripts and having pitch meetings. So, when I do see people like Brit Marling getting things done, it lets me know that it's possible. It basically just tells me, 'Dude, get to work!' For some reason, I think that I'm not doing enough work.
What you do does matter. And people do remember it and feel it.
It's crazy how intelligent kids can be at a very young age and how they know what they know.
I'm constantly looking for ways to learn and elevate your craft, patience for yourself, and patience for this business. It's not a fair business. You may be great, but it may take years for someone to notice what you're capable of because of politics.
Nothing in my life has necessarily been easy, but eventually I see where it's gotten me to, and I say, 'Okay, it's been worth it.'
We have far more options for black Americans to tell stories outside of slavery, but whenever it comes to slavery, it's an uncomfortable subject. Why? Because it's the most unresolved subject in American history.
I think enslavement has evolved to what may seem appropriate to this day's generation. Modern enslavement is imprisonment.
