KiKi Layne

“I think especially when depicting young love, so often we see young love where you're just all about this other person, where you're willing to do everything, anything, wherever they need you to be.”

“If you're good at your job, you're good at your job regardless of being male, female, whatever. Either you're a good director or you're not, and there are plenty of bad male directors.”

“I'm committed to jumping into roles, worlds, and stories that historically actors who look like me have been left out of.”

“An unlikely source of inspiration? My nieces and nephews. I feel encouraged to keep going because I know that if I keep going, then I can tell them to keep going.”

“I think with the 'Fresh Prince,' there were all of these really interesting personalities and characters, and yet there's so much love in that household.”

“Seeing all of these beautiful brown faces and having that patience for them to live in whatever it was that they were living in; I was just so blown away by the artistry that I recognized in 'Moonlight' - the colors, the music.”

“I think I learned the value of being more patient with myself.”

“If you see black people being portrayed in this one way well then, when you see a black person in real life, you're going to carry some of that way of thinking with you.”

“What does it mean when I wear something that makes me look like a Disney Princess? Versus something that's like 'ooh, maybe Kiki Layne can be a sex symbol.' Because these are things that, sometimes dark skin actors with natural hair, we don't get put into those types of conversations.”

“I'm not going to sit around and wait for some old studio executive to decide my career path.”

“My favorite artist is J. Cole. I like Kehlani a lot. Teyana Taylor is dope too.”

“The thing about tarot - maybe this to me is the difference between it and working with a psychic - to me it's clarifying the things that you already know. I don't feel like any tarot reading I've done or received was particularly surprising. They always speak to things that you kind of felt already.”

“Well, I used to model back in high school, and I was one of those people that, every week I was tuning in to 'America's Next Top Model.'”

“My mom put me into a performing arts elementary school back in Cincinnati, so I started studying acting in school when I was seven.”

“I'm not one of those people that's like, 'I'm about to serve on this Whitney Houston song at like 2 A.M.' No. Karaoke? I'm just like, 'Live your best life.' We're not worried about those notes, we just living.”

“As much as I love to slay a red carpet hitting the ground running with 'Beale Street' and 'Native Son,' representing two such important voices in James Baldwin and Richard Wright let people know that I'm an artist and I really have something to say with this gift.”

“I've determined my style - I like to call it elegant funk. You'll see me in some really beautiful gowns but I'll still have my septum piercing in.”

“I was artsy.”

“We witness so many people lose themselves in this industry, and sacrifice who they really are for success and accolades.”

“Some things shoot in Chicago, but even those things that shoot there still cast their bigger roles in L.A. or New York.”