A Quote by Cynthia Addai-Robinson

I'm really inspired right now by a lot of the actors and actresses who are pursuing storytelling outside of just acting. They're writing, producing, they are creating their own material. That's really exciting to me. It feels like the possibilities are endless as far the things that you can make and even where they can be shown.
I am devoting some time to music. I'm finding a balance in my life right now so that when I'm not acting I'm really working on the music side of things... producing and writing and recording and also getting to do some live shows. It's a really exciting thing.
Even though I make documentaries, everyone's acting in a way. Really. And you're creating, and you're confabulating things. You can't relive reality, you can just present it. And that's what I do. I have worked with actors and I like it very much, so maybe. I think that would be wonderful to do something like that, as well.
I'm creating my own oasis in my house. I've got a lot of calming, soothing things around my house. The way it's set up, it's supposed to just be a breath of fresh air. I can find solace in painting and writing. I honestly love what I do, so it's not too much for me. Creating is something I've always been able to do, whether it's making little cartoons or writing a full-length script. It's something I really, really enjoy. I'm trying to make the best of what I've been given.
I guess part of my ambivalence about pursuing music as well as acting is that acting is already one of the most difficult careers to create for yourself, I must be insane to embark on creating two careers in two of the most difficult fields. But I have really different ambitions with music; I just want to stay in love with music. I want it to continue to be a means of expression for me that feels like it's mine, and something that feels community-based.
Trying to make your own sound is hard. When I was producing for other artists, I could just produce and write songs as a normal songwriter, and almost make them generic. The artists themselves, whoever is singing that song, can put their own twist on it. When it came to my own material, I had to really dig deep, because I was just writing generic stuff. It sounded like everybody else, like Justin Timberlake, like Usher. I never wanted to sound like someone, that's when you know it's not going to work.
Because I also write, I really admire Latinas who are creating content. That's the next step. We can talk about seeing more Latinas on TV all day long, but it's about what we can do to make that happen. Women like Eva Longoria, Sofía Vergara, Jennifer Lopez, and Salma Hayek are producing a lot of great shows that feature Latinas. Those are the women who inspire me because they're not just acting; they're creating for the future.
When I got into the movie business, working with actors was the one thing I was really weak at. I didn't know what to say to actors. They scared me and intimidated me. The actors that I've worked with who have had a lot of experience, or who I've even grown up watching as a kid, were really scary. I was like, "What am I going to say to this person?" But, I've matured. It's fun. I understand what actors do now.
It's been reinforced to me, and it's a little cliche, but I've learned that you can't make a movie that even works, much less that's good, without really good writing and really good acting. That lesson has led me to not be distracted, so much, by the other stuff going on in filmmaking and to focus on the essence of a story, and the words and the events and the way that those are interpreted by the actors. That philosophy has taken me to a place that I really like.
Acting has been the only thing so far that really gets me jazzed. It's like my girlfriend in a lot of ways. We fight. We have a relationship, and she gets me up every morning. I'm inspired by it, and I want to one day be really good at it and see what we can do together.
To me, it feels like every time I'm watching some trans story, it's about their grief around their gender. And there's not really a lot of opportunity for them to explore stories outside of that. It's just really frustrating. It's really one dimensional.
Obviously, once you're finished, you're like, "Okay, I have to make this a movie now, and I need people - bodies to play these parts, and actors to bring this thing beyond a script." But when I was writing it, I wasn't thinking of actors; I was really thinking about creating three-dimensional characters.
As much as I love acting and I hope to be doing it for a long time, it almost feels more natural for me to be a producer. I came into all of this because I'm a fan of movies and I wanted to find any way I could to be a part of it all. I happened to take the acting route but it could have been a million different ways in. Now that I'm producing it's just really fun for me to work with people that I really admire and put people together who I think will work well together. Just having a little more control.
I've always been a history buff. It was one of the few subjects at school that really, really caught me. I think you'll find a lot of actors will be interested in history because it sparks your imagination so much. When you enter a period of history, your imagination just goes wild in creating the world, which is really what acting is.
I feel like a lot of the stuff coming out right now just feels really inauthentic to me. But apparently, people don't seem to see through it. And this makes me sound bitter, but it's just my perspective. I'm not bitter. I just feel like there's a lot of stuff that doesn't feel like it's coming from a place of any sort of integrity. It just doesn't feel like it's coming from the heart, basically. It just feels like it's being produced because people know it's a formula that will work, or it's easily digestible and fun to look at.
I wouldn't say I'm personally trying to transition from comedy into drama. I don't look at things like, 'Oh, I need to do a drama now.' I get a lot of material sent to me, and if I feel like something has the creative integrity and the right director and the right whoever involved, the right actors and is a great story, then I do it.
I'm always trying to find that role that will allow me to stretch and play a lot of different sides, but it's hard. To be frank, as an actor, I read maybe a hundred scripts a year and I really strongly respond to probably two, but every other actor in town responds to those two scripts, as well. It's hard to land those roles that are really good because they're coveted. That's why I try to create for myself, and that's why I've been doing things outside of acting, like writing and producing. I try to not have to depend on other people so much.
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