Quotes

[on his lead role as Jackie Robinson in the biopic 42 (2013) ] The story is relevant because we still stand on his shoulders. He started something - I would even say maybe he didn't even start it, it started before him. But he carried the torch. And he carried it alone for a period of time before other people could help him.

[on making 42 (2013)] What I loved about being on the field is that there's this sort of meditative aspect to it. You have to be calm, and you can't be inside your head. That's the beauty of what Jackie Robinson did - you take a sport where, if you're in your head, you make mistake after mistake, and failing is what you do most of the time. Then you add all the other stuff going on around you, and you still manage to succeed? That's really what was amazing about it, and I didn't understand that until I was practicing it every day.

[on meeting Hank Aaron] When he came to the set, it was like having Jackie Robinson there. I think he looked up to Jackie, and he experienced some similar conflicts. He was able to give me insights into how he approached the home run record, and it was a difficult time for him as well. He's like a grandfather, such a gentle spirit. Every time I got to meet him, it just put me in a good place.

Guys are natural problem solvers - they like to have strategies.

You have to cherish things in a different way when you know the clock is ticking, you are under pressure.

I played Little League baseball, but I also played basketball. Basketball was my primary sport. When you play basketball seriously, a lot of times, through the summer season, you continue playing. So that replaced me playing baseball.

I majored in directing. However, I did spend some time at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, so I am somewhat well-versed in African Studies.

I would love to play Jimi Hendrix.

When you're doing a character, you want to know the full landscape. You want to know them spiritually, mentally and physically.

Every year, Hollywood is looking for that new, white leading man and new white starlet that audiences fall in love with. But they're not looking for the next Denzel Washington, Will Smith, or Sidney Poitier.

People have said, 'You don't need to do any more biopics. You don't need to play any more real people.' I don't agree with that.

In TV, you're basically shooting an episode in 10 to 14 days; 14 days is a luxury situation. And in film, you have anywhere from a month to three months, or it can be even longer than that, depending on what the production is.

In television you don't have a lot of time to spend with the role or the script. Typically you get a script a week prior to shooting. Sometimes it's even less time, not enough time to dream about the role.

When I met Rachel Robinson for the first time, she is a regal woman, and she was like a grandmother in that first meeting.

Sometimes when you're acting, you only need a little bit of something to sort of channel or, you know, transport into a place.

I love all types of music. Jazz, classical, blues, rock, hip-hop. I often write scripts to instrumentals like a hip-hop artist. Music inspires me to write. It's either music playing or completely silent. Sometimes distant sound fuels you. In New York there's always a buzzing beneath you.

I know that baseball players have certain rituals or habits that they develop, because sometimes it becomes somewhat superstitious if they get on a streak and want to do the same thing over and over again.

I think there's a difference between a working actor, a movie star and a celebrity. They're all three different things.

I started out as a writer and a director. I started acting because I wanted to know how to relate to the actors. When people ask me what I do, I don't really say that I'm an actor, because actors often wait for someone to give them roles.

Some people would view Jackie Robinson as a very safe African-American, a docile figure who had a tendency to try to get along with everyone, and when you look at his history, you learn that he has this fire that allows him to take this punishment but also figure out savvy ways of giving it back.

I'm the kind of guy who comes home and checks scores for everything. I'm a sports fan in general, so I pretty much keep up with who's ahead in a division and everything that's going on.

I'm an artist. Artists don't need permission to work. Regardless of whether I'm acting or not, I write. I write when I'm tired in fact, because I believe your most pure thoughts surface.

As a director, it is important to understand the actor's process.

As an African-American actor, a lot of our stories haven't been told.

[on Black Panther (2018)] You might say that this African nation is fantasy. But to have the opportunity to pull from real ideas, real places and real African concepts, and put it inside of this idea of Wakanda - that's a great opportunity to develop what a sense of identity is, especially when you're disconnected from it.

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything You gave me.

[ Last text to Nate Moore, executive producer of Black Panther (2018), talking about the cancer patients he would visit in the hospital] It broke me, man, but we need to do that for them. People deserve abundant life, special moments. They've been through hell battling disease. If we were able to ease their suffering and bring joy for a moment, and hopefully moments (as) he goes through the bags, then we made a difference in his life.