00:00I think it's important to share my journey because whenever you're born in
00:03the hood, I mean there's so much to overcome. You gotta overcome racism,
00:07poverty, so many obstacles. And in order to give hope you have to tell your story.
00:13You know, raised in southeast Washington DC by a single mom and my dad was the
00:18one who saw acting in me and he literally sowed seeds in me and he was
00:24like you're gonna be the greatest actress alive. Naturally I auditioned for Duke
00:29Ellington School of the Arts which I did not get accepted into. That rejection at
00:33such a young age I thought that meant I couldn't act. So I decided to go to North
00:39Carolina A&T and study Electro Engineering and my heart was always in that
00:44theater department and so when I went back and I enrolled at Howard I had to
00:49audition again and I remember my hands were shaking and I got in.
00:54Henry Edmonds, may she rest in peace, she's the one who pulled me aside and was
00:58like you I had she told me I had a promising future and that half of the
01:03kids in the department wouldn't make it they wouldn't graduate and that was just
01:07like is she talking to me? I was in all of pretty much all of the plays at Howard
01:11and then I started going to the movies and I started seeing my peers on film and
01:16I was like I can make real money off of this. Then that's when I decided to take
01:21that leap of faith and move to Los Angeles with my son because obviously I
01:26became pregnant in college my junior year and I didn't let that stop me because
01:32now I've got a lot to prove to this kid. But I've had a lot of false starts in my
01:37career you know everybody thought it was gonna be baby boy and then it wasn't and
01:41then it was hustle and flow but see I never relied on one project to do it for
01:46me or whatever it is and I knew that it was gonna be very different for me and
01:51Tyrese after baby boy. I just knew because he was a guy his career was
01:55gonna take off and I remember saying it to John. It's easier out here for men.
01:59Tyrese books Transformers he booked two big franchise movies
02:03Transformers and Fast and Furious right after baby boy and where did I go? To a
02:08show on Lifetime that no one pretty much watched. Once that happened I knew that I
02:15was in for the long haul so that's what I actually pray for longevity. I said I may
02:19not be number one right away I said but by the time I get in that number one
02:23position I want to amass such an audience from young to old and that's
02:27what I've been doing secretly in my lab. So I've earned my fans trust over the
02:32years. I don't feel any pressure to do anything but live my best life and be
02:37healthy and happy. I laugh a lot I take breaks I take a lot of naps you know I
02:42drink a lot of water everybody's aging like you're gonna age there's no way
02:46around it is inevitable what you gonna freeze yourself gonna walk around a
02:50frozen ice cube no men that absolutely don't have an age limit put on them at
02:54all they don't I have not seen a man stop working because of his age I
03:00haven't even seen the man stop working because of his receding hairline hmm but
03:04or his beer gut why should we have a limit you know and I think that's what
03:08myself and Viola and Regina King I think that's what we all fight for to
03:12break through that ceiling I mean we're still talented why should we stop working
