J. August Richards

“Marvel makes you feel like 'Iron Man' will show up at your front door to kill you if you say the wrong thing.”

“What I love about the sci-fi community is that it's the most nonjudgmental, inclusive, diverse environment in the country. There's no group of people that is more diverse and inclusive.”

“I believe that I'm an actor to this day because of 'Star Wars.' I saw 'Star Wars' as a child, and I was completely enamored by it.”

“The cool thing for me is, I go to a lot of conventions - a lot of science fiction conventions like Comic-Con - and there are always a lot of attendants of color. And I think some people believe that black people or people of color are not into science fiction or hero shows or genre shows.”

“As a boy, my favorite show was 'Superman' and my favorite movie was 'Star Wars' - along with other science fiction shows and movies. And I always wanted to fly.”

“I really love fan art, which I get sent a lot of. I really, really get a lot of. I get a kick out of it.”

“I love roles that don't really have a template or a paradigm and force me to create using my own imagination... that really, really turns me on.”

“I feel that, as an actor, you're constantly working to become better, which I love, but with painting, I can fail on my own terms. There's a freedom in that, so that's why I love to paint.”

“I was in fittings for the first costume even before I knew I was even going to be 'Deathlok.'”

“I absolutely love working with David Boreanaz, and Charisma Carpenter I completely adore - she teaches me to dance.”

“I like to paint, I'm absolutely no good at it, but I'm so comfortable with that because it's good for me to have something to fail at.”

“I went right to the 'Guide to the Marvel Universe,' which has every Marvel character from A-Z, and fortunately, I had every issue. I found 'Deathlok,' read about him there.”

“I feel like my life experience is that of an outsider. Let me explain: my parents are from Panama, and they moved to the United States the year after I was born. They moved into an all-white neighborhood, where the previous black family had a cross burned on their lawn.”

“Whenever I get an audition to do something that is sci-fi-related, it makes me really happy because I realize that I can continue doing the work that I'm doing and continue meeting people all over the world. It does baffle my management team sometimes, though!”

“I think often times on Joss Whedon's shows he can make you hate a character for a period and then love the character. He does it effortlessly.”

“I really enjoy working in genre series, because you really have to create the characters.”

“Their crew for 'Arrow' is just one of the most wonderful crews that I've worked with. I know that actors say that all the time, and it sounds like trash coming out of my own mouth, but it's so true.”

“Everything with Marvel is on a need-to-know basis, so I didn't officially know until the second episode I did, which I think was the 10th episode in the season. Information is carefully guarded over there. I definitely didn't know that I was 'Deathlok.'”

“I love creating characters that people may or may have not ever seen before. But I enjoy the opportunity to try to make something new, and that's when I really come alive as an actor, so I really enjoyed working on 'Arrow.'”

“Once I found out that I was playing 'Deathlok,' I unearthed my old comic book collection. I was going home for Christmas, and I have a collection of thousands of comics. I was surprised to see that 90% of them were Marvel. So, I wanted to go through my collection and start there.”