I have a mole in my eye, which is a very specific thing.
Susan Kelechi Watson
With my representation of a black woman in the world today, there's such a powerful response from my community about what it means to have black representation on television. That response is so overwhelming and so strong that I just have to express my own gratitude for it, because I understand the necessity for it.
You have to practice the life you want regardless of what the circumstances are.
So many people want to be seen not just as a mom or a wife, but they want to be seen wholly.
I pray and meditate every morning for anywhere between 15 to 50 minutes.
What I say is that there's this culture and this vibe and this community in Brooklyn that's so amazing and wonderful, and it has influence on the world. That's the part of Brooklyn that I love and I begin to miss.
PBS was just such an awesome resource for a child's early development. And now I realize Mister Rogers is also an awesome resource for an adult's development because his philosophies are just timeless and are so relevant and are so important and are so simple and just something we can all grasp onto easily.
A month before I booked 'This Is Us,' I was like, 'Maybe I should move to Montreal and work in a coffee shop.'
We all need somebody to say, 'I love you. I see you. And I'm not going to give up on you.' Everybody has validity. Everybody has a purpose.
Thank God I applied to Howard. It's where I belonged.
This is an age where you could put anything on YouTube; people can make films on their own.
Historically, and even now, women have been asked to give up on their dreams way more than men, mostly - because it's sort of like you're supposed to once you become a wife and mother. That's a generalization; that's what the mentality has been.
There was a time when I just didn't have the opportunities, which meant going without things in my life - whether it was clothes, or food, or money - and living a really bare-bones life.
It's a complicated dynamic sometimes, mothers and daughters. There's this thing of, like, 'This is a model of womanhood for you,' but yet we find so many reasons why we don't want to be like our mother.
You always have to keep setting the bar for yourself.
There is nothing like being able to develop a three-dimensional character over a long period of time. Sometimes you aren't able to fully portray a character because you only have a couple of scenes to do it in, and you don't get the full life and background of that character.
As you build your career, you know where you want to go. I'm definitely moving towards films. That's definitely a goal. I'm definitely going to put it out there.
Judith Jamison is, like, supreme.
I'm the ultimate studier of comedy. I grew up in a very funny household. My dad is the king of one-liners; my brothers are great at telling stories, and my mom is funny without knowing it.
That's always fun to play: the person who can be truthful and blunt, and people take it because that's who she is.
I trained in theater. I loved Los Angeles, but I've found New York to be successful for me.
I actually worked with an organization called Drama Club that works with incarcerated teens and youth in a detention center and in Rikers Island, which a lot of people don't know that teens have been incarcerated in Rikers Island.
Some of the joy in acting is switching it up: being able to do something that's different than what you've been doing.
I think, so often, we can let our circumstances dictate what our value is. And I have to remember that my value is the same whether I'm in the dirt or I'm picked up and dusted off.
There was no way to predict that 'This is Us' was going to be what it is, that it would really resonate with people.
I don't know that I constantly think about being a black woman.
After a while, the person who knows the character best is you, the actor.
I personally don't lock in a performance, because I do leave room for things to happen, so I just make sure I'm very intimate with what I'm saying and why I'm saying it so that no matter what happens, we can do whatever we want to do and leave space for play.
I've trained in dance for most of my life, but ballet was the thing I left behind the earliest because they felt like I didn't have the right body for it, and I didn't like that and never felt like I could be a part of that dance structure.
All I can say is marriage is hard.
As a kid, you're so at the mercy of the people around you, the people raising you, your environment.
It's always really cool as an actor to have a character that people want to see the best for.
There's light and dark in all things, you know?
