actors-from-louisiana

"Growing up, my love for theater was insatiable. I just love to make people laugh and clap and smile. When I discovered drama and the ability to move people to tears, it was so powerful. As much as you can feel like God created you to do something, I believe He made me to entertain."

"But I want to encourage people and not take things too seriously. I want myself and everyone else to feel at ease and feel like they’re in their safe place."

"The coolest thing about awards season is celebrating together. What a great year it's been for Broadway. That I get to be included is amazing."

"You work with so many people of different backgrounds, especially in community theater. From aspiring actors to an optometrist who likes to moonlight (as a performer). It's such a weird and fun and funny environment, but I was so grateful. You are an amalgamation of all the people you've worked with or that encouraged you, or that you learned from."

"Not to say you can't make movies for the flock, that's great, too...I personally want to make movies that get to everyone. I want inspirational stories that inspire hope and faith to get to people that don't have a lot of hope and faith. I think this movie does that; there's a natural inspirational aspect to it you can't get around."

"Prayer and meditation are very important, which are also somewhat synonymous, I think, in some ways. Sometimes my prayer is meditation. Sometimes I’m just there and allowing God to take over what that time is. I’m not really saying anything as much as I’m just spending time. I think one of the most important things, at least for me, is taking my thoughts captive. Our minds are so powerful, but they are so easily, so easily hijacked if we don’t really go, ‘Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I’m doing it again. I’m starting to speak ill of myself again. I’m starting to be harsh or critical of myself. I’m starting to judge where I’m at in my life."

"I’ve gone through points in this where I felt really confident, and I’ve gone through some really heavy moments where I thought, ‘I’m crap in this show.’ Then for this to happen, it really smacks you in the face and says, ‘Listen to your people that love you and that are telling you you’re doing good work."

"Honestly, the biggest challenge is just my own brain."

"I know as an actor I don't want to sacrifice my morality or my integrity; I wouldn't be able to sleep at night."

"If you are taking shortcuts, cutting corners or essentially compromising your integrity... then you might get there, but how stable will it be? How long will it last? How fulfilling will it be? Look—I dunno—maybe there are people who've cut all kinds of corners and they get to the top and they're so stoked. But I can't relate to that type of person; I don't understand."

"We all stumble, we all fall, we're all broken. But to highlight someone who, even through all that imperfection, is still trying to do what is right, to hold on to what is most valuable."

"I was running to lots of other things, whether it was sex or drugs or booze or things to distract me from, to numb myself from the pain that I was running away from most of my life. The irony is that booze can give you this temporary relief, but then the next day amplifies that anxiety tenfold. So, then you’re running back to get more and it just becomes this vicious cycle."

"My career was in a place where I felt like even though I had accomplished so many things up to that point, I was still, and to be honest, even now, I still feel this way. I feel like I’m a bit on the outside looking in. I’ve never really felt like I am a part of whatever the cool kid group is."

"Power means standing confidently and sitting comfortably in one’s own skin and in their truth. I think as Black Men and Black people that we get so many societal messages telling us one way to be and to conform. I think the strongest thing you can do is sit comfortably in your shoes knowing that you are enough and that you bring enough. To exhibit power or to have power is to grow in your own internal strength, confidence and values knowing that no matter what color or complexion you are or where you come from is that you are enough, and that’s what power means to me."

"When I was 5 or 6, I already was telling people, I want to be a movie star. I was already a movie fan, though at the time I thought the actors were actually behind the screen. As a boy, my dream was just to be a movie star; later, I wanted to be an actor."

"I wanted to be in the movies so badly that just before turning 15 I hitchhiked all the way to Hollywood, hoping to break into pictures, but of course it wasn't that easy. I ran out of money in a week and thumbed my way back home."

"Oh, my best part was in The Rainmaker (1956). It was my 15th movie and my first co-starring role. I played Katharine Hepburn's younger brother, and I won the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. My competition that year included Anthony Quinn in Lust for Life, Karl Malden and Eli Wallach in Baby Doll and Herbert Lom in War and Peace. But the big blow came when I failed to get nominated for an Oscar. I was at Louella Parsons home, doing an interview, when the news came. It was a crushing blow to me that I wasn't nominated. Louella tried to console me, saying, You're young, you'll get lots of opportunities. Well, I'm still waiting."

"After seeing me perform in the drama Montserrat on public TV, a critic in Philadelphia wrote, I didn't know he could act."

"I still have plenty of vices, but alcohol isn't one of them. It's probably just down to sleep and diet. If you travel long haul a lot or don't sleep much, it's not going to last very long, that's for sure. I'm pretty healthy so I think that helps a lot. I've been that way for a long time - 20 solid years of eating vegetarian/vegan and taking care of myself. That probably helps the preservation process."

"I ain't no angel, I still got a few more dances with the devil. I'm cleaning up my act little by little. I'm getting there. I can finally stand the man in the mirror I see. I ain't as good as I'm gonna get, but I'm better than I used to be."

"She slides in and you rode down Main Street, you turn right when that red light turns green. Sun sets now, you're half way to heaven. She picks a song, you turn it up to 11, you say "Do you wanna?" and she says "Hell yeah." So you hit the party, all your buddies are jealous. Someday, you'll be looking back on your life at the memories, this is gonna be one of those nights."

"Kisses sweeter than Tupelo honey. Little bit crazy like New Orleans. Memphis blue and Daytona sunny. Soft as cotton in some cut-off jeans. Don't you know, ain't nothing in the whole wide world like a Southern girl."

"Meanwhile back at mama's. The porch light's on, come in if you wanna. Supper's on the stove and beer's in the fridge. Red sun sinkin' out low on the ridge. Games on the tube and daddy smokes cigarettes. Whiskey keeps his whistle wet. Funny the things you thought you'd never miss. In a world gone crazy as this."

"I don't ever wanna wake up, looking into someone else's eyes. Another voice calling me baby on the other end of the phone. A new girl putting on her makeup before dinner on Friday night. No, I don't ever wanna know. Oh, oh. No other shotgun rider, beside me, singin' to the radio. Oh, oh. Oh, oh."

"It ain't like midnight and cigarette smoke. It ain't like watered down whiskey and coke. I guess some things just don't mix like you hope. Like me and you. And diamond rings and old barstools."

"'Cause when you got love, like we got love. I'm holding on to heaven, holding onto you. When you got one, like I got one. Anyway you looking, it's a hell of a view. Don't know where we're gonna be, but I know we're be sitting on top of the world. So keep hanging onto me. Yeah, don't you wanna be sitting on top of the world? Top of the world."

"Hold the door, say please, say thank you. Don't steal, don't cheat, and don't lie. I know you got mountains to climb, but always stay humble and kind. When the dreams you're dreamin' come to you. When the work you put in is realized. Let yourself feel the pride, but always stay humble and kind."

"I'll always be a fan of ol' stray dogs and guitars playin'. One room churches, back road walks and front porch swingin'. Sunset skies, bonfire nights, I love the simple things. That's how I'll always be."

"You can have a lot of fun in a New York minute. But there's some things you can't do inside those city limits. Ain't no closing time, ain't no cover charge. Just country boys and girls gettin' down on the farm."

"I'm down here in Mexico, sick as a dog. My head is poundin' in this border town fog. Down to my last dime and comin' apart at the seams. I've messed up in Mexico, livin' on refried dreams."

"I like it, I love it, I want some more of it. I try so hard, I can't rise above it. Don't know what it is 'bout that little gal's lovin', but I like it, I love it, I want some more of it."

"Just to see you smile, I'd do anything. That you wanted me to when all is said and done. I'd never count the cost. It's worth all that's lost. Just to see you smile."

"I'm gonna live where the green grass grows, watch my corn pop up in rows. Every night, be tucked in close to you. Raise our kids where the good Lord's blessed. Point our rocking chairs towards the west. Plan our dreams where the peaceful river flows. Where the green grass grows."

"I had a barbecue stain on my white T-shirt. She was killin' me in that mini-skirt. Skipping rocks on the river by the railroad tracks. She had a suntan line and red lipstick. I work so hard for that first kiss and a heart don't forget, something like that."

"You're more than another, there could never be another. To make you feel the way you do. Ohh, we just get closer. I'd fall in love all over. Every time I look at you. I don't know where I'd be, without you here with me. Life with you makes perfect sense, my best friend."

"The urge to run, the restlessness. The heart of stone I sometimes get. The things I've done for foolish pride. The me that's never satisfied. That face that's in the mirror. When I don't like what I see. I guess that's just the cowboy in me."

"Now it feels like no one ever left me out in the rain, cold words still remain unspoken. And I never got lost, spent years in the dark. You're here, now my heart's unbroken. When I see you smile, fill my soul again, and I'm unbroken."

"She's my kind of rain, hey, hey-hey. Like love from a drunken sky-aye-yai-yai. Confetti falling down on mine. She's my kind of rain."

"I may be a real bad boy, but baby, I'm a real good man."

"And all I wanna do is let it be and be with you and watch the wind blow by. And all I wanna see is you and me go on forever like the clear blue sky. Slowly, there's only you and I. And all I wanna do is watch the wind blow by."

"I went skydiving, I went rocky mountain climbling, I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Blue Manchu. And I loved deeper, and I spoke sweeter, and I gave forgiveness I'd been denying. And he said "Someday, I hope you get the chance to live like you were dying.""

"Back when a hoe was a hoe. Coke was a coke. And crack's what you were doing. When you were cracking jokes. Back when a screw was a screw. The wind was all that blew. And when you said I'm down with that. Well, it meant you had the flu. I miss back when. I miss back when. I miss back when."

"One, two, three like a bird I sing, 'cause you given me the most beautiful set of wings. I'm so glad you're here today, 'cause tomorrow I might have to go and fly away. Fly away, fly away, fly away, fly away."

"Girl, you don't know what you're puttin' through. It's a business doing pleasure, a business doing pleasure with you."

"Smooth as the hickory wind that blows from Memphis down to Apalachicola. It's "Hi, y'all, did you eat well? Come on in, I'm sure glad to know ya." Don't let this old gold cross and this Allman Brothers t-shirt throw ya. It's cicadas making noise with the Southern voice."

"Ooh, ooh, ooh, I wanna go crazy, you can go crazy too. Ooh, ooh, ooh, I wanna go crazy, I wanna go crazy with you. Everybody sayin' "Woah, how sweet it is. Woah." Yeah, it felt good on my lips."

"Look a-here, sweet mama, let's burn off both our shoes Well, my heart's a-beatin' rhythm and my soul is singin' the blues."

"I never said I was the greatest. I’m the best."

"If I couldn't do it my way, I'd best stay at home."

"I never set fire to a piano. I'd like to have got away with it, though. I pushed a couple of them in the river. They wasn't any good."