Sometimes people are like, 'Hey, you played Dean Thomas!' and I'm like, 'Wow, you actually know!' It kind of shocks me because when I think about movies I love, and if I saw someone who essentially did what I did in Harry Potter, I probably wouldn't recognize them walking down the street.
I think the end of last year when we were aware of that transition was for everyone in their own way kind of bittersweet, but it's also what the show's about, one administration ends and another begins.
I think it's important to stretch as you get older, but I try to do basically all the things I did when I played, except I can't do them as well and as much.
What I'm doing is making sure that I have a balance, and that allows me, I think, to be a better actor and to more easily and quickly access all of the emotions on the scale. I make sure that I read a book on the weekend or read something or do my knitting or do the things that I need to do for myself, like 'Game of Thrones.' Get that balance.
I think it's easy to hold on to this romantic hope that communities such as Niaqornat won't change, because we're in this world where progress is unstoppable, and they're a link to some idealised past.
I don't think marriage is a civil right, but I think that being able to transfer property is a civil right.
I think it's a human tendency that's been around for a while to try to be as good as possible to prove your worth.
Just about the entirety of the first album, 'Brown Sugar,' I wrote it, the majority of that record in my bedroom in Richmond. And all of the demos for it were done on a four-track in my bedroom. I think EMI was a little leery of me being in the studio producing it on my own, which is what I was fighting for.
It really comes down to the fact that, because I was perceived as a bad guy for leaving the show, I think people were rooting against the movies. That was really unfortunate.
And when I was young, my family was perfectly nice. I write a lot about it, as you noticed. But it was rather limited. I think, I don't think anyone in my family would really feel I'd done them an injustice by saying that. We didn't see many people. There were many books. It was as if I wanted to get away from home.
Have a hand in your own treatment. I have nothing but praise for our doctors, but I think they could help us better, and we can help them if we work together.
Moving out to L.A. for me was a leap of faith. I was very secure in my dinner theater world; I loved it, and I was just like, 'I think there's something else out there for me and I just have to go for it.'
I have often said that just as the French revolution, for instance, understood itself through antiquity, I think our time can be understood through the French revolution. It is quite a natural process to use other times to understand your own time.
I like to be able to come and go as I please, and I don't really like having my face and name plastered around. I think it's a bit weird to have your name plastered on every page in a magazine, where in each case you're using a different piece of equipment.
Every time I get a role, or the opportunity to explore a role, I look at it, and I think, 'What is the story we're trying to tell here?'
I'm just really confident sexually, and I think that sort of oozes out of my pores. It's just there. It's something I don't have to turn on.
The main objective - our soul is our people. And our job is to enrich their lives, change the world. And so I think that's the bigger pressure you put on yourself.
I think any girl who comes to Hollywood with sex symbol or bombshell hanging over her has a rough road.
I grew up listening to Jay-Z, and I think the first time I really became obsessed with learning and thinking about lyrics was when I started listening to rap; I was 11, 12, and started becoming aware of music beyond the familiar.
I think there are certain business matters which we must now conduct differently than we used to.
I think we're all mysteries to ourselves.
I don't have a sense of entitlement or that I deserve this. You'd be surprised at the lack of competition between nominees - I think a lot of it's imposed from the outside. Can I have my champagne now?
I want to break into the acting industry. It's something I have a great deal of respect for; it's a passion of mine. It's so amazing, the differences between acting and being an athlete, but the one commonality is they both evoke emotion in the viewer. And those emotions are real. So I think that's pretty cool.
I watch people who are not driven by creativity any more, and I think how dull it must be to produce the same kind of thing. If you don't feel you're reaching something new, then don't do it.
Other people have noticed more of an evolution than I have and so I'll try to tell you where I'm coming from and also relate it to what I think other people perceive.
I think some of my colleagues' spicier lines are distracting. They draw attention away from what the justice is trying to say.
I think a lot of men are afraid of pretty things, and I'm not, I like pretty songs.
I was always fighting with everyone when I was a kid. I was playing with people two or three years older than me, and I had to survive. So I love the physical game, the contact. And I don't know why, but I think football is like this. It is not just touching the ball and stringing together 50 pretty passes consecutively.
It's strange how extras have become such a big part of the business. I don't know what I think of it. I mean, some of them are great, most of them are filler.
I think the genetics of being Irish are that you sort of prefer when it's rainy and cloudy. It's just genetic.
But my main thing that I would love to see as a fan of 'Glee,' like I said, is to really get into the character and who they are and what they do outside of school. I think that that's interesting. And then of course the themed stuff and the album episodes are all really cool too.
When I started out, there were three things that made film people look at me with condescension, I was young, I was black, and I was female. I have won a certain respect, but I think the film community still sees directing as a male job.
I think it would be interesting if old people got anti-Alzheimer's disease where they slowly began to recover other people's lost memories.
I used to buy into a former Supreme Court justice's argument that you can't scream fire in a crowded theater. Well, I think you can.
I thought the Billie Holiday comparison was beautiful. I think, Wow, what a wonderful, creative, helpful spirit. She's someone who wanted to help others by sharing her emotion. That's what I do, too, so I think that's a great comparison.
It is something actresses need to go through and I think they look forward to being naked in a movie. I don't know why, but it is something you need to exhaust from yourself.
