I don't know how people say exercising is addictive.
Walking in the street, particularly in a city like New York, every single day, I am reminded of how objectified women can be. Being catcalled every day, multiple times a day, all the time... it just constantly happens.
I actually didn't think I was going to do TV because I don't really watch TV. I'm a little bit pretentious, and I do these little indie movies, so I envisioned that more as the path for myself.
The truth is all kinds of people exist everywhere. So let's tell their stories, too.
It is so frustrating to feel in danger. People have followed me around at 2 in the morning and have literally said, 'Don't make me follow you. You're not responding to me.' It's incredibly degrading.
Growing up, my aunts would always put in hair ties and bows and all kinds of stuff, and I always hated it.
Despite my career, so much of my life has been dictated by what I'm afraid of: fear that I am not talented. Fear that people will finally realize that I am a boring individual who doesn't have many ambitions beyond starting a family 'at a good time' in life.
For me, fear manifests itself in snoozing and inactivity. I just become so sleepy, any time of day, when something needs to be done. I sometimes go days without responding to texts or reading books or being able to process much of anything beyond the sun slowly creeping through my living room windows.
Some people feel like women should dress in a way that doesn't promote attention-seeking. But this is just my body. My body in itself isn't only sexual.
My father is German; my mother is African-American. Growing up, I visited my grandparents in Berlin a lot. I would not see any other person of color for three weeks. People would stare. They would say things like, 'Oh, you look like chocolate - I want to eat you up!'
The version of me on the Internet, it's not me. It's one portion.
I do wonder if it's my responsibility to spread a message of environmental awareness or political awareness or just, like, don't be racist or whatever, but I don't want to be the person who's like, 'Everyone be vegan forever!'
I was an only child until I was 15, so I was able to reap the benefit of that.
Growing up I definitely, definitely had a bunch of things of, 'Um, am I black enough?' - and I guess specifically, 'Am I German enough?' Why are we measuring blackness?
I remind myself that, though there was a time anxiety might have stopped me, today is not that day. And so, by checking in with myself, minute by minute, I push myself through.
I always thought my alternative life, if I wasn't acting, would be to become a midwife. I love women. I want to help them exist.
I used to cry on planes. I don't anymore. It probably took almost a hundred agonizing flights to get there. Now, when I take off, a smile quivers on the corner of my lips.
I feel like I pull inspiration, in general, from how I feel on a day.
