Professional Breakthrough Quotes

My big break was becoming the spokesperson for Texas Instruments. Casting directors really started giving me a chance to read for projects.

I got space from Travis Air Force Base, went back to the Philippine Islands and made it a point to meet the only American casting director in the Philippines. I was off and running.

I was picked by Pradeep Sarkar for a huge campaign called 'Bharat Nirman' and he infused a lot of confidence in me and from thereon my journey started.

'300' was a real turning point in my career. Until then, I felt like a steam train that was slowly chugging to the top of a hill. Now I'm over that hill, my career seems to have its own momentum.

I have a special attachment to 'Bitter Sweet' and feel grateful because it introduced me to people in the film industry overseas and helped me experience Hollywood.

I was turning 20 during my first record. Those decade birthdays always kind of cause me, it seems, to reflect, look back, and then look forward. I just was closing this period of my life where I was living in a car and scrambling my whole life to then signing a six-record deal with Atlantic.

It fell into my lap. I grew up doing dance classes. And one day, a film production company contacted my dance school looking for background dancers. I wasn't looking for it. It just happened. And I found myself on set. And that was that.

There are not a lot of young African-American guys who come through the video room. I wanted to make sure I was one of those guys, not only to live up to that standard but almost make a breakthrough for young African-American men. There is a pathway for you through the video room as well, but you have to be willing to do the work.

I had a role in 'Crossroads' when I was about 21, and then I went on to perform in 'Small Change' and then 'Piaf' in the Donmar Warehouse, London, and it was when I was there that some casting directors spotted me.

The closest I ever came to getting married was just before I started singing. In fact, my first record saved my neck.

I grew up doing musical theatre in Orlando, Florida. When I was 14, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time - a deliveryman heard me singing and offered to deliver my demo tape to Sony Music. I was just really lucky.

I went back to Dallas for a little while to finish my short film 'Rusty Forkblade.' It was not the instant success I thought it was going to be. There's a false narrative that if you make a short film right after senior year, you'll be plucked out to make a feature length film, and the rest is history. I didn't do that.

I guess professionally it began when Hal Hartley used some music of mine in his film The Unbelievable Truth.

Every actor looks all his life for a part that will combine his talents with his personality... 'The Odd Couple' was mine. That was the plutonium I needed. It all started happening after that.

I'm a Brit and I just put myself on tape, back in London, for a very distant American project that I thought I didn't stand a chance of getting. And then, I got a call about a week after I had submitted my tape, just saying, "They really like you and want to screen test you." So, I flew to L.A. and did the screen test. And then, I met Elijah [Wood] and did a screen test with him. And then, I had a very nerve-wracking few days back home, waiting and waiting and thinking, "This cannot possibly go my way because that would just be too good to be true." And then, it did.

For very long, I wasn't able to find a place for myself in movies. After my initial success, I didn't know how to capitalise on it.

I was like a waitress that got a job once in a while, and then Stifler's mom happened, and everything changed.

Just as I was telling myself that I was a one-film actress, it all started to happen, both at home and in my career.

David Michôd changed my life, quite literally, along with the chaps at Sony Pictures Classics. That's what set me on my way. I thought we did good work and had a good film, but when it was so praised at Sundance that year that's what really started the ball rolling. We all paid our own way to Sundance.

In order to put it into perspective, as an actor, it's super hard to get on a TV show. If you get on one, it's super hard for that show to be reasonably successful. All of that, on paper, seems pretty special. It's the sum of the parts, really. To roll the dice and come up with this particular show is pretty fortunate. I'm very happy about Silicon Valley series. It's changed everything for me.

I am very lucky that my first film was fully commissioned by HBO.

Until I became a nurse, no one had ever asked me to sign a book contract. I had been writing for decades, read thousands of books, and even worked in publishing for 10 years. Who knew that nursing would be my break?

For me, Sundance always felt big. It's not the only way to make your way, but for me, it was definitely that critical link between struggling artist, kind of working on my own, to actually working professionally and being connected and being seen.

I had lots of breaks. I guess the one that got my foot in the door was singing the National Anthem at the National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City in '74.

Steve and I saw eye to eye on the story and I got the part, but I think in the beginning it was due to my brother's instigation. So I owe him for that.