I'd stand on the side of the road when I was just a little girl singing on trash cans.
I'd stand on the side of the road when I was just a little girl singing on trash cans. People would roll down their windows saying, 'Isn't she cute'. I had a vivid imagination. I always pretended it was some big stage.
As a little girl, my destiny was stamped onto the canvas of my imagination at 5 years old. I was watching soaps with my grandmother... The most gorgeous black women I had ever seen in my life came out, and I knew that that is what I wanted to do - be fabulous and black and on TV.
There are no captions on red-carpet photos that say, 'This girl trained for two weeks, she went on a juice diet, she has a professional hair and makeup person, and this dress was made for her.' I just wish they'd say, 'It ain't the truth.'
Even when I get on airplanes, very often, as I walk down the aisle, I notice a lot of people staring or whispering. I recognize the fact that yes, to a lot of people, I will always be that 14-year-old girl who was kidnapped and who was held captive.
A great social success is a pretty girl who plays her cards as carefully as if she were plain.
Growing up as a young black girl in Potomac, Maryland was easy. I had a Rainbow Coalition of friends of all ethnicities, and we would carelessly skip around our elementary school like the powerless version of Captain Planet's Planeteers.
I remember driving to North Carolina when I was a little girl in a snowstorm to get down to my mom's family in the Carolinas. There were chains on the car - it was the late sixties - and we were just singing in the car. Christmas carols.
The last thing on my mind was to be an actor, but I had a crush on a cute girl in the drama department, so the best thing for me to do was audition, help out, do carpentry, whatever it took to get me on that project.
I went straight from high school to 'Gossip Girl,' and both were very structured, scheduled environments, so I never had freedom to explore and carve my own path.
Think it is just a matter of... well look how long it took Shawn Colvin to reach the level that she has. Believe me, that girl has done everything except stand behind the cash register at Tower and take the money.
When it's the funeral scene of 'My Girl,' and Thomas is in the casket, and the young lady is screaming that he can't see without his glasses, you can absolutely, absolutely cry. Perfectly big, crazy tears all over your shirt, into the arms of others.
Casting directors said that I look like an urban girl with sharp features. Maybe that is true, but we are living at a time where a lot of advanced make-up techniques are available.
Your average teenager can't relate to a girl who casts magic spells. But she does understand someone who is torn about her upbringing and the situation in her life.
I'm a sweats and UGGs girl. Very casual.
You can draw inspiration from anything. If you're a good storyteller, you can take a dirty look somebody gives you, or if a guy you used to have flirtations with starts dating a new girl, or somebody you're casually talking to says something that makes you so mad - you can create an entire scenario around that.
I've had agents tell me, 'You're not gonna be on the cover of anything; you're a catalog girl.' I've had clients tell me, 'You're too fat, and we can't book you any more because you don't fit into the jeans.'
For 10 years, I'd been told I was always going to be a catalogue girl, never a cover girl. Well, I got with IMG and did five covers in a year, boom, boom, boom.
I'm a big Cate Blanchett fan. I'm ready. I'm coming! I mean, come on, I am a gay girl; I want what I want. I want to come to Australia and marry Cate Blanchett. Just let everybody know for me.
With dates I like to cater a girl. We do whatever she likes. If she was open to what I wanted to do, it probably wouldn't be a dull date, because I am a jock.