Throughout my career, I was to be cast as a frontier girl, an aristocrat, an Arabian, a Eurasian, a Polynesian, and a Chinese.
I'm not really a redhead, but I keep playing these redhead actresses. Which I don't mind; I think it's fun.
Getting to work with good filmmakers and getting to play good characters in films is so special.
It's funny what actors take issue with. Some won't do parts where animals are in jeopardy; some won't ever play anyone remotely unlikable - 'Heroes only, please.' Some won't do violence. I have no such qualms.
I am not comfortable wearing a bikini in real life, why should I agree to wear one on screen? A swimsuit becomes like a dress when you wrap a sarong over it, so there was no objection to that.
I'm not a writer; I'm an actor. My job is to take whatever character I'm given and - especially because I have the responsibility of being a black actress, and I know young black girls are looking up, and everyone's looking to what's on television - to just try to give whatever character I'm playing as three-dimensional a portrayal as I can.
There seems to be more opportunities for old guys like me to do a little fighting and running because the lead characters also require a bit of depth and maturity and gravitas that one is likely to acquire doing drama all those years.
But everyone comes to Hollywood hoping to get a role people are going to remember them for, and I get girls saying I was their first crush, or Asian guys saying Rufio was the first time they saw an Asian kid on-screen that wasn't nerdy or stereotypical, so I was lucky the character that resonated was cool.
I've never played anyone but myself on screen.
When people see me as Gavaskar on screen, I want them to feel that they are looking at the person that they have known and when I play on screen, it should remind them of how he played.
Actors do movies because you want to make a connection; you want an audience to recognise themselves in what it is that you're depicting.
I would love to be able to play some characters on television that are similar to some of the indie film roles I've done, that have been so close to my heart.
I think I'm a character actress in a leading lady's body, but the industry doesn't really see me that way.
Will Smith played Chris Gardner better than Chris Gardner ever did.
I don't know that 'NCIS: Los Angeles' is a complete reinvention, but I'm playing one of the guys in charge this time. Before I'd be cast as a young impressionable character. I think part of that is just being more mature.
Being in love is such a nice feeling,and to be able to see that feeling on-screen is just nice, especially when it's a great story.
Hollywood always wanted me to be pretty, but I fought for realism.
My father has a general rule. He says if I haven't done it in real life I shouldn't do it on-screen.
I always get cast as the girl who's dying or the girl who's killing or the girl who's suicidal - all these heavy roles. But I like playing them.
Whether it was 'Gangs Of Wasseypur' or whether it's 'LSTCK,' the characters are real, and when you see them on screen, you can identify with them.
The producers came across some of my photographs. They thought that I resembled Ambedkar closely. So they invited me.
Being an actor, I've thought about being in the male gaze.
The bigger the movies you're in, the chances are better at getting more diverse roles.
It's not that I am not comfortable wearing a bikini on screen. If I get an opportunity in future, why not?
It's amazing how you get to recreate somebody else's life on-screen. It's wonderful when you get responses like, 'You actually look like him.'
