00:00I think it's important to share my journey because whenever you're born in the hood,
00:04I mean, there's so much to overcome.
00:05You've got to overcome racism, poverty, so many obstacles.
00:10And in order to give hope, you have to tell your story.
00:13You know, raised in southeast Washington, D.C. by a single mom, and my dad was the one
00:18who saw acting in me.
00:21And he literally sowed seeds in me, and he was like, you're going to be the greatest
00:26actress alive.
00:27Naturally, I auditioned for Duke Ellington School of the Arts, which I did not get accepted
00:31into.
00:32That rejection at such a young age, I thought that meant I couldn't act.
00:36So I decided to go to North Carolina A&T and study Electro Engineering, and my heart was
00:43always in that theater department.
00:46And so when I went back and I enrolled at Howard, I had to audition again, and I remember my
00:51hands were shaking, and I got in.
00:54Henry Edmonds, may she rest in peace.
00:57She's the one who pulled me aside and was like, she told me I had a promising future,
01:02and that half of the kids in the department wouldn't make it, they wouldn't graduate.
01:06And I was just like, is she talking to me?
01:08I was in pretty much all of the plays at Howard.
01:12And then I started going to the movies, and I started seeing my peers on film, and I was
01:17like, I can make real money off of this.
01:20And that's when I decided to take that leap of faith and move to Los Angeles with my son,
01:25because obviously I became pregnant in college my junior year.
01:29And I didn't let that stop me, because now I've got a lot to prove to this kid.
01:35But I've had a lot of false starts in my career.
01:38You know, everybody thought it was going to be Baby Boy, and then it wasn't, and then it
01:42was hustle and flow.
01:43But see, I never relied on one project to do it for me, or whatever it is.
01:48And I knew that it was going to be very different for me and Tyrese after Baby Boy.
01:52I just knew because he was a guy, his career was going to take off.
01:56And I remember saying it to John.
01:57It's easier out here for men.
01:59Tyrese booked Transformers.
02:01He booked two big franchise movies, Transformers and Fast and Furious, right after Baby Boy.
02:06And where did I go?
02:07To a show on Lifetime that no one pretty much watched.
02:13Once that happened, I knew that I was in for the long haul.
02:16So that's what I actually prayed for, longevity.
02:19I said, I may not be number one right away.
02:20I said, but by the time I get in that number one position, I want to amass such an audience
02:26from young to old, and that's what I've been doing secretly in my lab.
02:30So I've earned my fans' trust over the years.
02:33I don't feel any pressure to do anything but live my best
02:37life and be healthy and happy.
02:39I laugh a lot.
02:40I take breaks.
02:40I take a lot of naps.
02:41I drink a lot of water.
02:43Everybody's aging.
02:44You're going to age.
02:45There's no way around it.
02:46It is inevitable.
02:48What, you going to freeze yourself, going to walk around like a frozen ice cube?
02:51No.
02:51Men that absolutely don't have an age limit put on them at all, they don't.
02:56I have not seen a man stop working because of his age.
02:59I haven't even seen a man stop working because of his receding hairline or his beer gut.
03:05Why should we have a limit, you know?
03:07And I think that's what myself and Viola and Regina King, I think that's what we all
03:11fight for, to break through that ceiling.
03:14I mean, we're still talented.
03:16Why should we stop working?
03:17So, let's go to the next day.
