Quotes

[on growing up] Newark isn't a playground. I had friends that sold drugs, stole cars. Being African-­American and driving a nicer car than cops thought I should [a BMW at age 16] gave me problems.

[on his role as the late Oscar Grant in Fruitvale Station (2013)] I prayed to Oscar a lot. I asked him to be around me, to give me his essence. When I was shooting that scene, I felt like I could've lost my life. I was scared, and I think that's how Oscar felt.

I would love to play a psychopath. Oh man, that would be amazing. I want my love role. I've never been in love [in a movie] before, so I want to know what that's like. I want to play that action hero, that guy that saves the day. I want to play the role that's a little off and weird. I want to play the killer. I want to get inside the head of somebody like that. I want to be a pilot. I want to play the astronaut. I want to play the oil rigger in the Pacific. I can't wait to be up for, say, the next Jason Bourne.

[on being known for his characters dying] My mom has seen me die way too much. I gotta give her a break. Hopefully, moving forward, I'll make it through the third act.

[on how he got involved with Fruitvale Station (2013)] Honestly, my agent gave me the script. We were talking about what I wanted to do, and I told him I want to do a big film and that I want to do a gritty, independent film. And I was blessed to get Chronicle (2012), and then right after that he gave me Fruitvale to read. I read it and started crying, like it was pretty heavy. I was like, who wrote it? And he was like, Ryan Coogler. I was like, OK, we gotta talk. And we had a cup of coffee, and we chopped it up and talked and there was no doubt in my mind that I wasn't doing it.

[on working with Octavia Spencer] Octavia is awesome. She's a really giving actress, you know, she's very funny. She can definitely lighten the mood when everybody's all sobbing and we had an emotionally draining day. She'll lighten the mood and say something to get everybody smiling again and get us in a good mood.

[on Fruitvale Station (2013)] From an actor's perspective, it's the moment I've wanted to happen for a long time - to be able to be the lead of a film, to go to Sundance, to prove yourself with the material. I'm getting all this attention and all this success off of this tragic event. It's a bittersweet type of feeling.

I love Ben Affleck. He's definitely somebody that I respect his opinion and I pick his brain whenever I get a chance.

[on his Independent Spirit Awards for Best Male Lead for Fruitvale Station (2013)] It's mixed emotions. Just the fact we have to tell the story of a young man who lost his life the way he did, somebody that could have been me. But also that people are affected by the work, that it really has people thinking, feels like a victory in my book. I think all the awards buzz is just getting it more attention. The accolades and nominations encourage people who might not have wanted to see it or thought they'd watch it when they get around to it, they might now give it a look.

Zac Efron is my brother right here. We went through the trenches together. Miles Teller is very witty and always has something smart to say. He's a good guy and has become one of my brothers too. It's funny how you work on films and build up these friendships off-camera. It's cool.

[on how he handles awards season] I usually cover my ears and run that way! It's always trying to manage expectations -- you just show up and do the work. After it's a wrap, there's not much you can do about it. Just gotta ride the wave and take everything as it comes. That's the best way, I think, to handle it.

[on getting to know Oscar Grant's family and friends while filming Fruitvale Station (2013)] Getting to know them - and getting to know Oscar through them - was very awkward at first, very hard, very sad. But then it started to loosen up. It became almost a healing process for them to talk about it. They gained a bigger voice. To be a part of that was an honor. With all his best friends, we went to a park, ordered some barbecue, played dominoes, drank a little bit. Just like things I would do with my boys back home in Jersey. And I listened to stories. You get a sense of who Oscar was in certain environments. He was a chameleon; he used to blend in. No matter where he was, he was somebody different, depending on what group of people he was around. So that was something that was very interesting to play through the movie.

[on if he stayed in character between takes during the filming of Fruitvale Station (2013)] I got out of it a lot. When it was heavy I was in it, but it was so much more than that. It was a love story, it was so many moments of him showing love to people he cared about. There was always the constant struggle between good and evil with him, he was always at a fork in the road, "Do I go left or do I go right?" and he would try to make the right decision, so playing that indecisiveness was really cool.

[on how he felt during the first time he watched Fruitvale Station (2013)] I was like, "OK, can we cut to something else?" I was tired of looking at my face. I was like, this is it, if this goes bad, it's all on me, there's nothing else on the screen! That was a weird moment for me. But once we were at Sundance opening night and his family saw it, their response to it, that's when the weight lifted off my shoulders. I was, like, these are the people that knew him, and if they are OK with it, then I'm good with it. Everything else is icing on the cake.

I want to do everything. I'm a producer at heart. Eventually, when I can produce the way I want to, my acting's going to help fuel that. And not just vehicles for myself - I'm a member of this film society, and I want to contribute. If you're in the industry, you can't just take from it; you have to deposit something back to keep it going for the next generation.

[describing the moment his character was killed off The Wire (2002)] Life was amazing. I was on a TV show. I was 16 years old. I had craft services. I was getting home-schooled. It was amazing. And then I got that dreaded knock on my trailer door episode 12 by David Simon, and no actor wants that visit by David Simon. Actors were dropping like flies, left and right. I remember just getting the script, and you'd just skim through to the last couple pages to make sure your name was still there to see if you survived. So Wallace was killed off. Yeah. And I was devastated because you know as an actor you never know what's coming up next. You never know when you're next job is going to be. And I was a kid; I was pretty devastated by that.

(On Fantastic Four (2015)) "That project is one of the those things, you've got to accept sometimes that you can give 110% and still not turn out the way you want it. Some things are just out of your control, they're bigger than me."

"I'm a comic book guy, I grew up reading comics and graphic novels and being fans of those worlds".

I want to play a villain so bad, just a villain. I've been playing the good guys, and that's cool, but just to play a villain that's so opposite of who I am.