I have a relationship with the southern hemisphere that's a really good one. I love it there.
I play characters. I don't think I really have a persona per se. I don't play the same guy every time. I show up, you don't know what I'm gonna do. I like it that way. I've intentionally tried to do it that way. I think that's what's interesting.
I work with my instincts. I don't have a process that I learned in an acting class whereby I break a script down or whereby I do a certain kind of research.
Having 50 to 60 years on the planet should give you a sense of how to master the way you look and live your life.
I had two times in my life where I wanted to give up everything I worked for, but God gave me a job.
Doing 'CSI: N.Y.' is not 'CSI.' Doing 'CSI: Miami' is not 'CSI: N.Y.,' it's 'CSI: Miami.' It has a very, very specific tone. It has a very specific look. It has a specific way in which they tell their stories that's different from 'CSI: N.Y.' and 'CSI.'
I was in a movie with Marlon Brando. Now, I didn't have any scenes with Marlon Brando, but I had scenes with Martin Sheen and was around Dennis Hopper, who was a child actor in the studio system and was enamored of James Dean, as was Martin, and they were all sort of disciples of Brando.
I learned tolerance at a very early age.
I'm passionate about all the things I do, really.
My production company, what we are trying to do is I'm trying to create content that speaks to me, and it's not one color. It's not one size fits all.
It's my luck that I was born a bit of an old soul, and it's served me well.
Projects don't need to be special for me to sign up, but I do need them to have something that speaks to me in some way.
I think of myself as being a relatively intelligent man who is open to a lot of different things and I think that questioning our purpose in life and the meaning of existence is something that we all go through at some point.
Anytime we're talking about Thurgood Marshall, that's a good thing, I think, because it gives us an opportunity to go back, look at the history, and recognize what his contributions were.
Jesse Eisenberg, this little nebbishy guy, as Lex Luthor? For me, that's a genius move.
I think I've certainly learned a lot of lessons in humility and continue to work on that part of myself.
Acting and philanthropy are braided together. I've tried to seek out things that speak not just specifically to the community that created me, but that speak in a way that's universal and all of humanity celebrates.
I try to meditate.
I see that I have, as part of my stock in trade, a very regal personality and carriage. I see that I have a kind of strength, a kind of command, and a kind of power that one would associated with a monarch.
As an actor, Coppola trained me. That was my training ground.
People think my name is Morpheus. Many times, people will say to me, 'Morpheus!' and I will complete the sentence by saying, 'is not my name!'
It's always a collective group of people coming together to oppose those things which are fundamentally contrary to our basic humanity.
After 'Othello,' it was, like, 'I can stop acting. I have played one of the great characters in the English language. I feel I have played him well and honorably. I have nothing to prove anymore.'
I didn't have much of a childhood, but that's O.K. I have a livelihood.
There's a bunch of plays that I never got to do because I was either too young or too old for the parts, like 'Slow Dance on the Killing Ground' and 'Dutchman.' For 'American Buffalo,' I was the wrong color.
I think there's going to be many special episodes of 'Blackish.'
'The Fugitive Kind,' 'Rope,' 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' - I watched all these as a way of reminding myself that you can do a movie based on a play. You can do a movie that stays in one place for a long stretch.
I've played a lot of bad guys, 'cause that was the only work I could get. People saw my face and went 'oooh'.
On a motorcycle, you can't really think about more than where you are. There's a freedom that comes with that - from stress, worry, sweating the small stuff.
As a man of colour, I've spent my life asking people to see me for who I am. With Obama in the White House, it feels like people have finally caught up to where I've been most of my life.
Back in 1978, when I was still in high school, I went to see a Broadway show, 'Paul Robeson,' starring James Earl Jones. It was all about Robeson's journey as a human being, an artist, a champion of civil rights. Had I not seen the play, I might not have known who Robeson was. I was certainly never taught about him in school.
I was a child actor but not a child star.
John Wick is not a guy that asks for help, so when he goes to somebody for help, whoever that is, you know he's a serious cat.
What I continue to learn as a parent is to be mindful of the fact that I am responsible for being the parent that my children need me to be and not necessarily the parent I want to be.
You know, whatever happens between the two of us that's created when we come together as actors is not something I think we can explain.
It's nice to get the feedback from a theater audience. It's a gas.
It's important for a lot of young black males to value swagger over intelligence. Swagger is important, but intelligence must come before the swagger.
I have taken care of my gift, and because I've taken care of my gift, I feel like I've been continually and constantly blessed to get to do wonderful things.
I ain't afraid of germs, man. And I ain't afraid of getting sick.
I don't think Othello is a jealous man - he is a man who has been deceived by another person, just as everybody in the play is deceived by that person... The playwright uses the word 'jealousy' over and over and over again, but I don't think it has anything to do with being jealous.
I have a man cave somewhere in California - a totally undisclosed location where manly things occur. There are motorcycles, there are secret doors and passageways. Women are welcome, but they must knock.
Mine were informal mentors. They were all in my working life.
Things have become considerably better for men of colour since I was born. But I'd say that we'll be really getting somewhere when things get better for women of colour.
If you asked someone who was a Maori about how they felt about how they were treated in Australia or New Zealand, you'll get an answer. They'll have something to tell you. And you might not like what you hear.
The 50s are the age of elegance. That's kind of my intention when I get dressed: casual elegance.
You can't be bad when you're working with a kid. They have the instincts that all great actors have.
Philanthropic work reminds you of everyone's common humanity, and that's really the common denominator for everyone.
There's great theatre in New York City, but no New York City in theatre.
You can't go looking for another one of those franchises. You only ever get one of those. You get 'Stars Wars'; you get 'Indiana Jones' or get 'The Matrix.' I've had my franchise.
