I want to exercise all my muscles. I want to do plays. I want to do everything.
Okieriete Onaodowan
As you get older, you grow and you revaluate.
With 'Hamilton,' what's cool about the show is that even super-old white people come to see the show and hang on every word, it's that good.
I knew nothing of American History because I didn't pay attention to American History in school. Because I did not see myself in American History in school.
The finances of a smash hit do not affect the actors in any way shape or form, it's the attention that comes with it. If it's a financial hit, then a lot of people are seeing it.
We put so much of ourselves onstage and we work so hard, that I never get tired of people telling me 'you're awesome.'
Despair is despair, sorrow is sorrow, death is death. It's not about who is experiencing it; it's about building a bridge of empathy across these experiences.
There's something to be said about seeing your face represented. There's just something really important about that. It just draws you in more.
Young kids who are out there who are upset and angry, they can watch this and realize that you can speak out through your pen and not just with rage and anger, and challenge the people who are telling you things that you don't like to hear, like 'Hamilton' did.
The arts was always a place where I could be present.
The great thing about 'Hamilton,' for me, is so many people have been exposed to and are more open to hip-hop and certain artists, despite the stigma that had before been attached to it.
It was just really exciting to see dark people in white people's clothing, or what is perceived as white people garb.
What we do in theatre is unlike film or any other medium. We can never really truly see the work that we made because we're in in.
All that acting and all that stuff and emoting and crap will come after you know what you're doing. So when you get - when I get on stage, I don't have to think about it.
I just loved listening to hip-hop, I love the words. The angry words resonated with me.
It meant the world to see kids excited about theatre. That's the great thing about 'Hamilton' for me is to see young people who wouldn't normally think theatre is cool being really excited about how it works and getting involved.
They're so effusive with their love... theatre fans. I'm a big comic book fan and there's a lot of parallels with them that they're just dedicated and loyal.
Hip-hop was born of people who did not have a voice. They were not heard. And those people exist and are a part of a framework of life... as long as that's true, people will gravitate to hip-hop.
It feels good to create, and to actually have input, and your choices are your choices.
I don't want to be anyone but me, but as a versatile as possible.
You have to cultivate diversity for it to work, and I feel the 'Great Comet' didn't take the time to cultivate it. They didn't want to invest in it.
That's how diversity becomes a gimmick or device, when it is introduced but not supported.
It's important to see yourself represented.
I played Pierre, a white Russian aristocrat, and my co-lead was Denee Benton. Two black leads playing not black people - it was an important moment for the Broadway community to say diversity is possible and it's here.
Broadway needs to let go of any fear that it won't succeed and take a knee. There's this rhetoric about being grateful and happy that you're getting paid for your art. We are told to put our own stuff aside, but doesn't everyone have a job they should just shut up and do?
When you have a platform and people listen, it's very important what you chose to say.
I never worry about whether or not I'll find a job.
If people feel strongly and passionately about something, I'll let them speak strongly and passionately - I'm not going to tell them not to.
I hated high school.
