How often do you see young actors playing scholars? Or striving to be intellectuals, you know? It's not that often.
When I first started acting in movies - as probably a lot of naive young actors do - I made a list of directors that I wanted to work with and sent it to my agent at the time.
I'm really not interested in acting as a facade, I'm interested in it as an emotional expression and as a transcendent experience for an individual. I find that a lot of people, a lot of young actors, haven't gotten to the point where they're comfortable being stripped down. They're still interested in ornate jackets.
There are a lot of limitations and stigmas that are placed on young actors, specifically young black actors.
I always say that life is not easy for anybody. People hear about the young actors who have a rough life, but there are plenty of other kids who aren't actors who have a rough time, too, and I don't know if the ratio is any different.
Casting young people is always so difficult, and they got it so right in 'Game of Thrones.' All the young actors are amazingly talented and so professional.
I always talk to all the crew. I always make it pleasant. I always nurture a relationship that makes people feel like they're important, like they're a part of the collaboration. I feel that way about the young actors on set. I don't talk to them like I'm the mentor; I talk to them like they're my peers. And I learned that from Meryl Streep.
'Skins' was such a great platform for young actors. They had this whole thing about getting people who weren't trained, this new generation, this new culture.
