Cress Williams

“As an actor, so much of life is out of your control, and it's really not solid.”

“As an actor, the only pressure I have is to just be truthful and to do my best work.”

“I was a poor kid. I grew up watching film and television but primarily television. And I graduated high school, and I knew I wanted to go to college because nobody in my family had. So I was like, 'I'll go and be a theater major.'”

“Who I always refer to as my acting mentor when I got into junior college is an acting professor by the name of Tom Blank. He took me under his wing, and he was that strong male figure. He was tough love, but he believed in me, saw everything that I had.”

“I realized that being that No. 1 on the call sheet sets the tone. That knowledge, it's important to me that everyone - not just actors, not just myself, but everyone - have a workplace that they enjoy, where they feel respected, that they have creative input, and that they feel is a place that they're excited to go to work.”

“From the moment I turned 39, 40, I really turned a corner and became a person who really enjoys working out. When I don't get a chance to, I miss it. I also just recognized that it would give me career longevity if I kept myself in the best shape I could possibly be in.”

“I'm a big fan of superheroes and fantasy and sci-fi. I have been since I was a child.”

“I grew up mainly with my mother, and I would see my father from time to time. But I didn't have a constant male figure.”

“I hadn't gotten a chance to do a lot of comedy, so 'Hart of Dixie' was a great place where I got a chance to do that and play.”

“As a kid, you just like anything fanciful that you're into, but as an adult, I really love that kind of place where the super hero mythos meets life, where it has that human story; that's what I think I was really drawn to when I started getting into the X-Men.”

“Generally speaking, I would say villains are a little more exciting to play, but if you get a flawed hero, then that can almost be just as amazing.”