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 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 love telling the experience of a black male in America, but modern, not always having to go back to a period piece to remind people where we come from. It's more a modern sense of where we are today and where we want to go in the future. So I try to choose projects somewhere around that space.

The young athlete who aspires to greatness, generally speaking, learns a number of things from several different coaches. The first one taught him the fundamentals; the second one instilled discipline in him and taught him more of the techniques that must be mastered to excel.

Sacrifice counts for a lot in sport. From a young age, I couldn't do the normal things that the boys of my age get to do. Maybe you have a nice car or a nice house, but at times you just want to be a normal guy and you can't.

It's fun for musicians to step into each other's world. It's like different football teams - it's the same game but a different play.

I love and respect my sport, but I am not a bad guy. First, I am a sportsman.