LAKEITH STANFIELD

You can be the most intelligent person, and you can have so much potential, but if you don't have a guide by which to channel that energy, then a lot of times, it's futile.

I wanted to be as genuine as possible because all those people like Jimmie Lee Jackson - me, Mike Brown, all these people - we're all the same; we're not much different.

I want to be in some Willy Wonka-type weird stuff, a role where I'm an alien. Anything that's new and challenging and real. I like real stuff.

I've been fortunate to get involved with 'Short Term 12.' I was just a young teenager on the Internet, clicking on anything that had the word 'actor' in it. One day, someone called me in for a movie audition.

I write poetry, and I put it to a beat - I mean, that's what they call rap.

I feel like with every performance that I see, I get better because I've always thought - while I'm watching people perform - of what I would do.

I'm in this music duo called Moors.

For me, life is like an act within itself. Everything I do is an act. Where I'm going is an act.

The prison industrial system, things like that are cleverly put in place to attempt to marginalize a certain group of people - and it's not only black, it's replete across the American society.

I grew up very poor in a fractured family that was dysfunctional on both sides, but I sort of put up these reflectors to most of the negative things that have occurred in my life. I don't carry around much baggage.

Have you ever heard of 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?' I would like to play Sidney Poitier's role - I love that role.

Although rap is about boasting, it's also about honesty and expressing your emotions.

Some people look like they're lost causes, but they're not. Even if they're in a messed up situation, the one little thing you do to help can go a long way.

It's been constant grinding and trying to secure work that I care about, tireless auditions and meetings. I've been fortunate that a lot of cool doors have opened to me, chiefly meeting great people who were inspired by what I've done and what they feel I could bring to their projects.

I love 'Watch the Throne,' because Kanye was acting so ratchet.

My biggest strength is I'm courageous, or if I am afraid of something, I do it anyway. I do what I feel. It's nothing personal against anyone, so that courageousness has been very good to me.

They say every five years the atoms in your body become a new set of atoms.

I really like watching myself a lot because it gives me an opportunity to see it from outside the flesh, and when I view it like that, I can be a lot more cynical and see the things that need to be attacked.

My two little twin brothers have autism, so I grew up around it and misunderstood it for a long time.

I'm from Victorville - it's about an hour-and-a-half away from Los Angeles, up in the desert. They call it Victimville because it's kind of violent. It's a beautiful place, though. It's quiet.

I was born in San Bernardino in summer of '91 and grew up in Riverside, San Bernardino, and Victorville.

I'm influenced a lot by my family. I have a big family.

Just listening and going back and forth and exchanging ideas with people. It's a beautiful thing. This is what's really important.

My producer, HH, makes sounds, so I'm writing to his beats.

When I was little, when I was a toddler or something, I would watch 'Jason's Lyrica' lot.