Being named Michael Jordan - I think growing up playing sports and having a name like Michael Jordan - and I was extremely competitive - I used to get teased a lot. But it made me want to strive for greatness and be able to compete at whatever I decided to do.

I love sports. I've played basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis, track and field growing up.

I think history repeats itself. There's a constant conversation between the oppressed and the oppressor. No matter what your field is, whether it's gender equality, the Time's Up movement, or diversity casting, it's always going to be a back-and-forth battle.

It's the African-American experience. You've got to wear different masks. When you're in the hood, if you stand out, you get picked on for being weak. Sometimes you have to hide your intelligence. In front of your boys, you might put on a bit of bravado, be a little bit tougher.

I come from a completely dysfunctional alcoholic family, so we kind of parented ourselves a little bit.

My dad, he would go through these periods of self-doubt. We'd do something that was controversial or that wasn't welcomed by everybody, and he'd go, 'Well, Shirley, our parents cursed us with ethics, and we passed it on to our children.'

I'm a working-class kid from a blue-collar New England family.

My son is such a lover, such a caretaker and so funny. He's seven, and he genuinely cracks me up. And my daughter is a fearless powerhouse. They fill me with wonder and admiration.