Fashion, film, and music - all these industries have ways of putting us in a box. Ultimately my goal is to push those boundaries.
As much as I love to slay a red carpet hitting the ground running with 'Beale Street' and 'Native Son,' representing two such important voices in James Baldwin and Richard Wright let people know that I'm an artist and I really have something to say with this gift.
I will never forget my first Valentino Haute Couture show.
Hollywood has had a very limited way of telling stories about black people.
Love & Basketball' has stuck with me since I first saw it.
Making films is such a large, collaborative effort and there's so many people who are a part of it.
For young girls to see someone who looks more like her, doing and being her. That's where my ambition and drive comes from, it's being so insanely committed to that. To achieve that, I'm doing everything I can.
It means so much to be a part of bringing James Baldwin's words to life.
I think a lot of times for women, especially in this industry, we're forced to do things for beauty that aren't good for what we already have.
I'm learning so much about my style just having access to so many things now. Growing up in Cincinnati, we really didn't have much money so it was really about places where you can go to get the most for the least.
For whatever reason, Hollywood has had a very limited view of what life is and what certain people in certain roles, what they look like.
When men are put into these types of circumstances like Bigger in 'Native Son,' or Fonny in 'Beale Street,' it destroys relationships, their love, their relationships with their children - it's under attack.
I definitely want to get into producing. I want to be on the side of the table where I can give people jobs.
It's amazing to me how quickly the industry will try to put you into a box. It's like, I did 'Beale Street.' And they decided now, all of a sudden, 'Oh, okay. KiKi Layne does those little quiet indie dramas.' I'm like, 'No! That's just where I got started.'
I'm very thankful I went to college, because I've seen the difference that it makes for me in the professional world. After graduation, I was building a name for myself in the Chicago theater scene, but there was always this pull to L.A.
It would be tough to live a life without any of the people you loved, where you can't even build new relationships. That connectivity is so important as humans. I wouldn't want to live like that.
It's the first way I feel we can really express ourselves. There's always a story you can tell with fashion.
I'm hopeful that, at the end of my career, wherever it takes me, there's a lot of variety.
I always have to find things that I relate to and understand in the characters that I play; otherwise, it won't feel that authentic.
