JOE MORTON

With my background, I came out of the theater.

James Cameron has always been way ahead of the curve in terms of the use of technology in his movies.

Unfortunately, most actors want to play off their own personal mystique and good looks and whatever, but that will only carry you but so far.

I came into the industry at a time when there weren't a lot of choices to what you could do.

I love doing movies but I loved doing theatre just as much.

One, I had never worked with John Woo before and I wanted to see what that was like, and two, Ben Affleck is a friend, so it would be fun to work with him again.

Basically, the actor's job is to pay attention to the script.

Film and television is just a different technique in terms of how to approach the camera but basically the job is the same; but what you learn as a craft in theater, you can then learn to translate that into any mediums.

When I started off many years ago, I made a determination that there were certain roles I didn't want to play.

Yes, I would love to play one of the leads in one these movies and have all those challenges and deal with all those complications, but the business being what it is, there is a slot for me in these kinds of films, so I enjoy them, and I enjoy the people that I work with.

I would love to play the villain, but again, it sort of what happens in this industry.

The advice that I usually give to young actors is that if you can create a character for the stage and keep that character fresh for at least 6 months that means you're doing the show eight times a week.

There are lots of stories about my culture that I think bring a whole other perspective to who we are and where we have been and how we got here that I think need to be done.

I think the thing is with a movie that has this much science fiction in it; you need characters who are more science fact, if you know what I mean, than they are human.

I think it talks about that there needs to be some proactive attack against drugs infiltrating our culture.

If there's no craft there, then once the looks go, there goes your career.

I think it talks about the fact that there are black people in the world who have tremendous amount of talents and have no channel through which they can those talents.

If you have the skill, then you can move as you age.

I think people believe that I give ant aura of someone who has both feet on the ground.

My whole career has been a landmark. So I don't think about the pressure too much. I just go out and do, because I believe in it.

Is it racist to prefer country music over the blues? Or is it simply a classic case of tribal antipathy toward the unfamiliar, in favor of gravitating to what you know?

Part of the decision I made was to move very fluidly from one medium to the other, and so it has stayed as part of who I am. I don't know if I have a preference.

Acting-wise, it's always exciting to come back for a third season of any TV show that you're working on.

When was the last time you saw a straight black love story without any guns?

When I first saw Dick Gregory on television, growing up in Queens, it was startling and amazing, because nobody else was doing what he was doing.