Kimberly Elise

It's what I tell my daughters: Know that your birthright is to shine your light, and don't let anybody deny you of that right. Take responsibility for your life.

It's funny because I never studied, I never took a class. So everything I do is very innate and organic; I don't really have words for it. It is a communion with spirit. I don't get in my own way and allow the character to do what it's going to do.

I can be dramatic. I can be funny. I can be sexy. I can be sad. I can be glad.

If Judd Apatow called me, I'd do it without thinking about it. I think he does really fun movies.

Whatever it is that I feel, I express it! I am free with my joy, my laughter, my pleasure, my pain, and I am blessed in that way as an actress that I can access those feelings within myself and not be ashamed to show whatever that is that's appropriate for the character.

I am actually very in touch with all of my emotions, from joy to pain, and I am free with them.

I always look at things half full and definitely see a change in how things are going as far as black actresses and their opportunities.

I watched Westerns from the time I was a girl. My dad was a big Western fan. I always loved Clint Eastwood movies and 'Westworld', where the guy gets trapped in a western-themed amusement park. The western motif was fascinating to me.

I don't have to be glamorous all the time.

I'm definitely in a place where I'm looking for different than what I've done in the past, just so I can go to work and do something I haven't done before.