DANIELLE MACDONALD

Diversity is just 'the world.' It's different cultures, different backgrounds, different ethnicities, different religions, genders, sexual orientation, shapes, sizes. That is the world, but we call it 'diversity' because there is this one type that has always been accepted in the media, and it's finally starting to change.

My sister, myself, and my cousins would put on shows for our parents and charge them to come and watch, apparently. That's what I'm told. My parents said I knew how to milk it.

The most surprising thing - and the thing I really didn't think I would have an opportunity to do when I was younger - was I didn't realize the kind of roles I would be able to play. I thought it would be, like, two lines here, the joke.

I think everyone kinda feels a little out place sometimes.

I actually got a visa through a job that fell through, and it allowed me to move out here and start from scratch. There's more opportunity in America for girls like me, I guess.

Growing up, you see movies, and the big person is always the butt of a joke or the funny best friend, or they lose weight, and that's when they become redeemable.

When you take on new roles that you don't feel comfortable with, that require you having skills you don't have, it's terrifying.

Honestly, a lot of the time the character roles are the best roles.

I had agents in Australia; I just never had any auditions. And if you can't audition, then you can't work. I studied there. I did classes there. I learned how to act. Growing up there, I discovered my love for acting, but I just wasn't getting the opportunities to work professionally.

None of my family is in the industry. But I watched movies like an insane person when I was a child. I used to make my dad stop at the video store every time we drove past it, and you had to drive past the video store to get to our house.

There aren't plus-sized teens represented in film who aren't made the butt of a joke.

How many people get to say they recorded a song with Dolly Parton and Jennifer Aniston?

I just got to do a challenging scene with Jennifer Aniston! That's unreal to me.

I play a girl called Patti in the film 'Patti Cake$,' and she's a girl from New Jersey, and she dreams of being a famous rapper.

I love Octavia Spencer. I love what she has to say as a human, and I love her career and the variety of characters she has played.

I wanted to act; wherever that was, I was happy. It just happened to be in America for me.

I didn't know how to be cool. I didn't know how to have swag.

When I was in Australia, I had three different agents in three different years, and I didn't have one audition. They were good agents; I just never had one audition that was the right stuff.

I like Macklemore.

Words are just words. They only bother you if you let them.

I will never stop being excited about 'Harry Potter.'

If you make one person happy, there you go - you did your job.

When I first watched '8 Mile,' it was amazing. It got me. I loved it.

I had to work at it - audition and fail, get things and lose others. If you really want something, you keep going.

The only thing is, I'm terrified of horror movies. I'm scared - I'm admitting it! I mean, I would still do a horror movie; I just probably wouldn't be able to watch it.