Growing up, I've had plenty of obstacles, but to be honest, I didn't always have doubters. I was a standout athlete, so when that happens, you don't have too many people telling you 'You can't do this,' and 'You can't do that.' I've always been a bit of a people person and a hard worker.

It takes a very tough man to play defensive line at any level of football, but to be able to do it on a Division 1 level, or a professional level, it takes that intensity, that aggression, and you have to be tough.

When I had my tryout, just from two days being in the ring, learning to bump, hit the ropes, and things like that, I came home, and my back was just one huge bruise.

I've loved to be a part of anything, having an opportunity to entertain, to be a part of a film, or just continue to do what I'm doing, I'm so happy, so just making town after town, doing my thing, but if I have that opportunity to star in a film or be an extra, I don't care; its all a learning experience for me.

I would even say that my parents, and their friends in our community, thought of education as a kind of armor against racism.

Connecticut would not be Connecticut if we cut $3.5 billion out of the budget. We are a strong, generous, hopeful people. We'd be taking $800 million out of education. You can't do that in this state.

I was a good student, but I didn't like school.

School, for me, was a really, genuinely hard thing. It was hard because l am an artist. You can't send an artist to a place where we learn at a mad slow pace sitting in a class.