There's nothing more liberating about starting with something that is not written. You pretty much create the history of that character and that character's life story.
Whatever you do, whatever you come up with, whatever you decide on, you can go with it, and if the director or the execs, they like it, then you'll stick with it. That's a good thing, as opposed to having something that's already written.
We have to recognize that we're all one, we all come from the same place, we come from the same source.
With film, you stop and go. You have to do 20 takes or whatever.
My daughter was born when I was nowhere near where I am now, and she took me to another level. I said, 'I have to become a better person in this life if I want to serve as an example. If I want to set a positive example for her, I need to get better myself.'
'IronE' stands for an eagle in flight with an unbroken spirit. I coined that term because it is indicative of my life story and the fact that I'm out of the inner city.
I always had a relationship with God as early as 8 years old. I can remember having these conversations with God. I'd go in the bathroom and look in the mirror and talk to myself, but then I knew I was not the only one present.
There were a lot of moments in my life where I could have died or I could have ended up serving 20 years to life in prison. I overcame those things, those obstacles, because I listened and I obeyed that higher power that was speaking to me at the crucial moments in my life when it really counted.
My grandmother was the matriarch. I was the youngest of all the men in my family, so I kind of used them as examples and kind of emulated what I saw them do. So I didn't have to deal with a lot of bullying because we had a lot of back-up, so to speak.
My life also prepared me to play T-Dog. That was what my entire life was about - surviving. To be on the set of 'The Walking Dead,' it was like being back home. I had to survive again, though in the fictional world.
Communication is number one, and we have to communicate honestly and openly with each other.
Change won't happen overnight.
