I'm from Los Angeles, and growing up here, I've always been enamored by Hollywood and the industry. It's just something I grew up with, and I loved it.

I've always said the thing that has helped me be the best actor I could be are my real life experiences, which have come in the form of my school experiences: meeting different people, learning different things, immersing myself in different topics and social situations, and sort of challenging myself to grow emotionally, intellectually.

All actors are self-critical.

My dad has been in the military for 35 years. My brother's in the Air Force. I'm familiar with what it's like being in a military family - the unusual traumas you carry around with you.

I've been extremely lucky in that I've been a very successful model for a long time. So now I'm an actress and a mother. I'm a theatre rat, which I always wanted to be - I've wanted to act since I was 14 - and I never get bored, ever, and I have four beautiful children. I am, in fact, so darn lucky.

I grew up in a family that despised displays of strong emotion, rage in particular. We stewed. We sulked. When arguments did occur, they were full-scale conniptions, and we regarded them as family failings. Afterward, we withdrew from one another and tried our best to strike the event from our memories.

In the United States, if you're African-American, it can be assumed that your family has been here for generations. In Europe, colonialism is much more alive, and it's assumed you're from Nigeria or Senegal.

A lot of times, you try and please your biological family, and you can't please them.