Zazie Beetz

Growing up, my aunts would always put in hair ties and bows and all kinds of stuff, and I always hated it.

My father is German; my mother is African-American. Growing up, I visited my grandparents in Berlin a lot. I would not see any other person of color for three weeks. People would stare. They would say things like, 'Oh, you look like chocolate - I want to eat you up!'

For me, a big thing growing up was naturalness - both in being and appearance. My mom never let me relax my natural hair. For so long, I thought I was ugly, and I still sometimes struggle with that. But now I've come to feel like this is me.

Growing up I definitely, definitely had a bunch of things of, 'Um, am I black enough?' - and I guess specifically, 'Am I German enough?' Why are we measuring blackness?

I like representing different kinds of black people - showing they exist.

I worry about not being able to be myself day to day. But I know people way more famous than me who have been able to do that.

I've had acting teachers say, 'If you want to do anything else but act, that means you're not an actor,' which I think is stupid!

I think what happens with a lot of writing and art is that specificity ends up being relatable while universality becomes vague.

I identify with my womanhood before anything else because that's what I deal with when I am alone.

It is so frustrating to feel in danger. People have followed me around at 2 in the morning and have literally said, 'Don't make me follow you. You're not responding to me.' It's incredibly degrading.

What I crave, and what I want to see on television, is when you see a minority character, not to have it being about them being black or Asian or Latino. If you watch 'Friends,' for example, it's not about a group of people being white. It's about a group of people being friends, you know? You should just let the characters exist.

I love babies. I also have this very deep desire to become a mother. I always thought that motherhood was my highest calling.