Perhaps it is time to debate culture. The common story is that in 'real' African culture, before it was tainted by the West, gender roles were rigid and women were contentedly oppressed.
The acting bug just seemed to stick with me. I loved going to theatre school in college and continued to train in film classes and had been auditioning for T.V. and movie roles since I was in my late teens. My career has been slow and steady, and I kind of like it that way.
I don't work for production houses. I only work for good scripts and roles. If you follow my career graph, you will find that I have not given a single flop yet in my career. I am proud of it.
I'm ambitious but I'm not particularly competitive. I'll try to get roles, as I think it's healthy to go for things, but... I think there's too much competition between women already. It's important to have female solidarity and support each other and other actresses.
I would make the tea on a Daniel Day-Lewis set just to observe how he crafts roles like he did in 'My Left Foot.' That was the equivalent of seeing Haley's Comet for me. I just couldn't understand how that was possible.
I do all kinds of roles - nerd, psycho, nerd, psycho, nerd, psycho - and occasionally someone kind of normal. It's weird, when I lived in Austin I was always cast as pretty normal people. But when I moved to Los Angeles I was immediately branded a psycho.
Acting is an imaginative exercise. It would be odd if you didn't try to identify with the roles you play, but I think I can differentiate between where my imagination is leading me and where I actually am.
I'm often asked how I portray the roles I play so convincingly and express so much through my eyes. Quite frankly, I don't know how to explain that. I guess it's about who I'm as a person; I radiate it through my eyes.
Perhaps I have managed some sort of longevity because I haven't won the lead roles. I don't have the pressure of being a world-famous bombshell that has detonated.
I'm not particularly a career-oriented guy. I'm lucky. I can make really interesting films much of the time with interesting people yet be anonymous, have a private life. But, I'd like to have the choice of the better roles.
Theater actors like to change character roles. They don't like to always do the same thing.
I've been on the wrong end of violence, and I've done violence myself... I refuse to glorify violence in my movie and television roles.
I am so proud of my heritage and of being Latina. I would most definitely consider roles in Latin America.
Yes. Otherwise I could have done a lot of Hollywood movies. After Crouching Tiger I got a lot of offers, but I turned them down because they were all victim roles - poor girls sold to America to be a wife or whatever. I know I have the ability to go deeper, to take on more original roles than that.
I would like to be more fit, but I don't think I will put on fat or gain weight for movie roles. I am not going to do that.
For me, as an actor, just to keep acting and to keep being able to work and to do different roles and challenging roles, that's something I'd love to do.
I'm the journeyman actor that you saw in one scene here, two scenes there. I've been eking out a living doing theater - Broadway, Off Broadway - film supporting roles, that I'm just excited to be a part of the conversation.
Every time I do a film, I have to make sure that when someone looks at me, they can't recognise Disha. It has to be a character. I want to do strong roles.
I learned so many roles so quickly as a young singer, I thought it was time to come back to them and make them better - deeper, more nuanced.
I like to play smart, three-dimensional women. I also like to play roles where the women are a little crazy. I just have a feel for crazy people.
Man, it's hard to beat having gotten to play Superman. But where do you go from there? Aren't careers supposed to culminate in a role like that? And because I'm a big fat geek, as long as there's stuff I'm excited about - and isn't that really the definition of geek? - there'll always be roles I'd love to play.
A long time ago, I became aware that many of us have a tendency to lump nature into simplistic categories, such as what we consider beautiful or ugly, important or unimportant. As human a thing as that is to do, I think it often leads us to misunderstand the respective roles of life forms and their interconnectedness.
There were so many lead roles available when I was in my thirties. Once I hit 45, there was a real downturn. But I got an incredibly provocative, delicious lead role in a television series called 'Saving Grace,' and I loved the character.
For most of my career, I've played roles that were written for other actresses.
I've talked to a number of actors who have gained weight for roles, and just the sheer physical toll it puts on one's knees and shoulders - no one wants to do it again. I'm 57 and I don't think I'm going to take on any job or go on vacation again and see to it that I can gain 30 pounds.
The truth is, after Boys Don't Cry, I realized how few and far between the great roles are. I am beyond thankful for finding Million Dollar Baby.
I want to get away from the high school thing and do other types of roles.
I do basically what a conductor does with a baton, except I also play along with the orchestra. So I have to juggle the roles of playing the concertmaster; sometimes I drop the violin and wave my arms.
The best roles you have to fight for. You have to really want to do it and you have to go after it.
I did roles that I hated, and there were roles that were detrimental to my acting ability. There were roles that I was always doing that were always the comic relief... it was destroying my soul.
I'm attracted to roles that are unpredictable, and if I can get my hands on something like that, I'm thrilled. I like performances where you don't know what's coming, moment to moment.
If there is any sense of order to the universe, acting is what I am meant to do. I'm not manufactured. I know acting isn't real, that it's temporary. If there is any theme to the roles I play, it is emotional vulnerability and availability.
That's the great thing about being an actor, you get to try out lots of things for your roles.
It's all so surreal, and I'm living my dream. And you know, principal or not, I'm getting to dance all the roles that I've dreamed of doing.
Just because we are women doesn't mean the only roles we can play are that of the finger-shaking girlfriend.
I created 'The Guild' because nobody was offering me the roles I thought I could do best at in Hollywood.