I can't even imagine something being more fun than playing James Brown onstage.

Actors can have a fair amount of hate for each other, so when another actor says, 'You did your thing,' or 'That was inspiring,' you can't really ask for more than that.

I wasn't a comic book geek as a kid. I read some, but it was just like, 'Oh, I have this comic book here.' It wasn't like I was collecting them.

When I got out of school, I didn't really understand the differences in the different aspects of the business. For example, doing a play - where does that take you versus, you know, concentrating on independent films? You might have one thing in your head, but the things you're doing don't really lead down the right road, necessarily.

I thought I would draw or paint or be an architect. I was always drawing portraits. My mom put me in art classes in the summer.

Each movie you do about a real person is like a painting, and you choose certain things in the painting that you want to pull out and you want to show.

They should probably have a James Brown aerobic tape. You would lose a lot of weight.

For me, being a complete artist means not necessarily just being in front of the camera, but being behind the camera or being the originator or creator of something.

I studied at Howard. I studied at Oxford.

Even after I became involved in theater and involved in TV and film, I had this sort of idea that Hollywood was off limits. There was something about L.A., the mystique of it and fear of it.