When I was beginning, a young actor could go from repertory company to repertory company. I did that and loved it. I was also lucky.
I'm always going to hear people make that connection and I've just accepted it. It's alright. I'm just happy that I get to do my own thing now. I learned a lot from the show [the Voice] as far as being in the TV world and being in front of the camera, which is really great because I'm not as nervous in front of the camera as I was before.
One of the great advantages of my time spent in movies and in basically every role possible, both in front of the camera and behind the camera, that I've gotten to see all these different ways that people work and the way movies are constructed from the inside out, from beginning to end.
I require a lot of stimulation, and there's so much I've learned being in front of the camera, I felt like I had more to give behind it.
I'm never comfortable being in front of the camera, but I've learned how to deal with it.
Women, as well as men, in all ages and in all places, have danced on the earth, danced the life dance, danced joy, danced grief, danced despair, and danced hope. Literally and metaphorically, by their very lives.
Being on set in front of the camera, it makes me happy and extremely grateful whenever I'm in front of the camera.
I guess in my house when I was growing up, I was comfortable trying to be funny. And my dad, of course, it bugged him sometimes. He was trying to rest, and I was constantly trying to say something stupid to get a reaction. But I like doing these movies. You can do it in front of the camera and then it's over. I don't have to worry about being in front of too many people.
I was always a natural performer. It was easy for me. I danced and I sang, and all that stuff. I felt like I'd be something in the arts, but it vacillated between being a dancer and a singer, or whatever.
'Hollyoaks' is where I learnt a lot of the craft, being in front of a camera six days a week. That's certainly an experience you don't get in drama school. It invites you to be comfortable in front of the camera.
For me, being a complete artist means not necessarily just being in front of the camera, but being behind the camera or being the originator or creator of something.
McLeod's Daughters was my first regular job out of drama school, and my first full-time role. That was great because I learned a lot, in terms of working in front of the camera. I learned a lot of technical aspects that you take for granted once you know them, but you have to learn them somewhere, along the way. It was a bit of a training ground for me, working in front of the camera and also dealing with media.
Karl Malden was quite a mentor. He taught me things he had learned from being in front of a camera so long.
I started at Howard in the drama department. At the same time, I was a fledgling member of the Black Repertory Company in Washington, D.C. When I graduated, I had the great fortune of being in the Los Angeles production of 'For Colored Girls'... And all these years since, I've done stage work.
My debut performance was on the railway tracks where I was asked to sing some Hindi songs in front of a mafia gang and around 20,000 more people were present. I sang in fear and danced too and luckily, they liked it.
I got into a Broadway show before I ever sang and danced. I learned how after I got in the show.