"I love Halle. She's so sweet. I connected with her immediately and, even though we only worked together for a few days, it was the best connection I've ever had with an actress. She made me feel like I could trust her."

"That was the first time she was given the opportunity to use what I think is still an underrated talent."

"My mother always said to me, 'You're going to have to work harder and have to be better, and you can't take no for an answer'."

"For me, the walk of the character is always the first part that I must define for myself."

"I've always liked to go down a different path. Being a woman of color, I never followed a cookie cutter way."

"I'm not obsessive, like I have to have the best butt or the best abs, but I like the idea of feeling strong and healthy. It's important to feel good about myself physically."

"I never even think about the physicality of roles, until honestly I get the gig and I think, 'OK, now what do I have to do in this one?' Like, I approach it thinking more about the character -- do I respond to it? Is it something I think I can play? Does it seem like it'll be fun?"

"I've never been afraid to be who I really am on screen."

"I've also grown as an actor as I've got older in life. I've learnt how to go to work, immerse myself 100 per cent in the character and, at the end of the day, take it all off and go back, get a nice bubble bath, have a nice massage and realise that is not my life. And that feels good."

"I used to believe that if my career was going great, then I was not entitled to a great personal life. Well, I've stopped thinking that way. I believe I can have it all."

"When I held that statuette, I felt as if I had won a triumph not just for myself, but for every other woman who'd struggled to overcome the same sort of background."

"I don't buy into that pressure to be glamorous all the time. It's impossible, I mean, you get a pimple in the morning, you wake up with bags under your eyes, you see if you can use it in your work, maybe incorporate it into your character."

"Being a black woman, I've often felt I've been judged by my sex and my race, and I have always known that it shouldn't hamper me."

"You know, she often tells me that what I do is great. I don't think she ever thought I would end up doing this with my life. But I think she is happier that I haven't changed over the years, that I am still me, that I care about her and that we are the same as we always were. And I think that is what makes her most proud."

"I get offered varied parts, often super sexy roles. But I still think it's an issue to find the good scripts. It's a myth that you win an Oscar and you get more opportunities, and this doesn't just go for me."

"The fact is that I like thrillers and action movies. But what really fulfills me is getting out of my comfort zone, taking chances."

"Sexiness is a state of mind -- a comfortable state of being. It's about loving yourself in your most unlovable moments."

"When a young woman tells me that she wants to become and actor, I say, 'No, be a writer. Or go to business school and learn how to run a studio.' The only real change will come from behind the scenes."

"When you grow up in that (multi-ethnic) environment, you see the world differently. Being a mixed-race child, I didn't always see colour in people, I really didn't. It was other people that made me see the colour all the time."