Don Cheadle

President Obama inherited a broken country mired in two wars, a financial crisis, a mortgage mess and more than we all probably even know about and has in my opinion brought us back from the brink. But I still see my friends in no better shape and the gap widening.

If people in this country think of Africa as a place with kids and flies swarming around their heads, then they won't understand that these people are you and you are them.

I've been doing this since I was 10 years old, inhabiting different people and playing different roles.

I want to see somebody go to jail over the financial crisis and not just black, brown and poor whites over humbles and minor drug beefs.

I used to record but just in my own studio or in my friend's back when I toyed with the idea of being a rapper.

I want to be a part of great things.

No, it's not comfortable; I hate watching myself. You don't like when you hear your voice on your voicemail; imagine having to see yourself 30 feet wide and 30 feet big.

It's great to be in a film that's able to have people really want to become socially conscious, to walk out of the theatre and want to do something.

But I think it's intoxicating when somebody is so unapologetically who they are.

We're trying to do what Miles Davis would have wanted us to do, which is approach it as artists with his life as the canvas.

People have always been obsessed by celebrities. There are just more outlets and opportunities to make a living exploiting that obsession nowadays.

For me, it's always just been about finding material that I think is creative and interesting and fun and something that can expand me and that I can hopefully do something with.