When I was growing up they didn't want me to do it because my mother was a teacher - they wanted me to go to school. But I love football and wanted to play - they wanted to stop me but couldn't. They wouldn't allow me to play out after school but I went out anyway. Maybe I lost a bit of focus on my studies.
My dad wanted me to play football so bad, he took me to Washington High School on the west side of Atlanta because they were number one. They never lost.
My dad always played sports. He played football. I always wanted to play football because my dad played football, but my mom never wanted me to play football because she said she couldn't take me getting hit.
My love of music comes from as long as I remember. I begged my mum to learn piano for a year when I was 4; she wanted to make sure I was serious, and I wanted to be Chuck Berry when I grew up! We were a very musical family; my mum would play guitar, and her, my dad and aunt would sing and harmonize!
I've spent my whole life playing football. My father didn't want me to play rugby because he felt it was very hard on the body, so at school, I was encouraged to play football, and that's where everything started.
I could dunk a volleyball in high school. I didn't play football because I knew they were going to put me at a fat-guy position, and I didn't want to do that. I am athletic.
My father wanted me to play pro football, and he didn't like the fact that I'd left school. And he said, "It takes a man to play football. And any fool can go up on the stage and make an ass of himself.
Philly was a great opportunity because I met Pat Shurmur. I was very grateful for that. Unfortunately I wish I had more football memories there. I didn't play in any regular-season games, which sucks because I wanted to play.
When I was 13, I won a scholarship to boarding school. My parents let me choose whether to go, and I decided I wanted to. Afterwards, I went to Cambridge to study law - in a way, I was carrying the academic hopes of my family, as Mum and Dad left school at 14.
When I wanted to go away to college in Toronto, my dad said, 'You can't go.' When I got to Toronto, I bought a couch, and my dad cried for the whole weekend because, as my mum told me, 'Now you have furniture; he knows you are never coming back.'
My dad told me, 'If you're going to go out there and play baseball, or you're going to play basketball or football, work hard at it no matter what. I want you to have fun with your buddies, but you have to put in the time because this is your craft.' He didn't just want me to be good. He pushed me to that next level.
Even though I was sent to private school, it was purely because mum and dad wanted the best for me, and they worked their socks off in order to be able to give me that.
We lived in a tough neighbourhood where there were gangs, and although my mum made sure I studied at school, they also allowed me to follow my dream to play football.
Monmouth was important to me because that was the first stepping stone. I am very grateful to the Monmouth program for taking a chance on a four-year lacrosse player who had a year of eligibility left. It was an awesome experience to go back there and play football again, especially since it was close to home.
Because I didn't have a Mum - she died when I was a baby - my Dad was told by people in authority that it was best for me to go to a convent school.
I made a very concerted decision to go to drama school in the United States. But I did have the opportunity to go to Britain's Central School of Speech and Drama, and my dad and I had a few tense words about that. He wanted me to go to British drama school.