Chadwick Boseman

“I'd taken, like, maybe some African dance classes a couple of times, but I wasn't a musical theater person at all.”

“One of the first things I was taught as an actor was, 'Don't judge the character.'”

“There's nothing more stressful than your stomach growling. But interestingly enough, some of my best writing came when I was poor and hungry - living off water and oatmeal, mind clear.”

“I would go through these cycles of being really, really focused on work, and not being around anyone, to being around everyone. And that could be distracting. It was nothing or everything.”

“The industry looks for white actors and actresses, but it's not the same for black actors. We have to really put the work in.”

“Every year, Hollywood is looking for that new, white leading man and new white starlet that audiences fall in love with. But they're not looking for the next Denzel Washington, Will Smith or Sidney Poitier.”

“When you make movies, it's such an important period of time, when you look back at each one of them. You want to be able to say that you did something that was a challenge and that changed you.”

“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.”

“Once you start getting big roles as an actor, everything pays. So what are you making decisions on? It's about the director or the script or whatever. But before you reach that point, you're taking jobs with, say, a theater company, in spite of the fact that it's not paying your bills.”

“I remember my first agent telling me - because they found me as an actor, but I was probably more interested in writing and maybe directing - they were like, 'Well, you can't do both things.' And I was like, 'I'm gonna show you.'”

“I studied at Howard. I studied at Oxford.”

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

“When you play characters, you shouldn't just be putting on their characteristics - you should be finding it inside yourself.”

“I'm not so keen on letting my car drive itself.”

“You're not free unless you can show the good and the bad, all sides of them. So to me, when I play a character, it's important that I can show every aspect of them.”

“I don't read reviews, but I do get feedback from my peers and people I know, like other actors and directors and producers.”

“I love all types of music. Jazz, classical, blues, rock, hip-hop. I often write scripts to instrumentals like a hip-hop artist. Music inspires me to write. It's either music playing or completely silent. Sometimes distant sound fuels you. In New York there's always a buzzing beneath you.”

“When you're doing a character, you want to know the full landscape. You want to know them spiritually, mentally and physically.”

“I majored in directing. However, I did spend some time at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, so I am somewhat well-versed in African Studies.”

“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.”