Film Producers From The United States

"I think aging is hard because it gets you closer to the inevitable—that we are impermanent. And the question becomes, what do you seek out of life? What is it that makes you feel alive and excited to be a part of this experience?"

"There was a lot of different wonderful elements that we had to tackle and we did. I just thank my amazing cast for coming in and leaving their egos at the door and my crew for working so very hard."

"Instead of 'Africanizing' Western stories, I'm interested in reclaiming African history rendering them into what is happening in the present day."

"Through my artwork and films, I hope to open audiences up to a new dialogue between the continents of Africa and America; one that incorporates more than just stereotypes, but includes both conventionalized and un-conventionalized discourses of race in its service. By creating complex contradictions, I hope that new meaning can emerge and be deposited into the universal consciousness. If I can do this by creating an experience for the audience that enables them to experience what it is like to find oneself, while being foreign in a community, then perhaps I can help that new meaning come to light."

"My definition of success isn’t about the accolades and the awards, but being authentic and consistent in my work and opening audiences up to seeing other perspectives in film."

"Being a Black woman who was born and raised in America to African parents is, naturally, where I draw my inspiration from as an artist and filmmaker."

"I would like to insert myself in the tradition of African storytelling through cinematic language."

"If I have any skill at all, it's the ability to come up with ideas that get people talking. With so many choices out there for viewers, you've got to get people talking about your show or you have no chance at all."

"“[Berkeley, Professor Hubert Dreyfus] always contended … for very philosophical and biological reasons … [AI was] never going to be able to do what a human being could do, but they could achieve mediocrity as a simulation.”"

"Certainly in the early days when I was doing a lot of shows for Fox and I was working with my friend Mike Darnell, we would sit there and try to think of crazy ideas and we would try to warm up each other. And then whenever we thought we'd have something that could be produced into a television show, we'd always say, well, can we really put that on television? And then when we would say that, we said, now we have to put it on television. Because if it was questionable about whether or not it was appropriate for viewers, then we knew we had a chance to be a success."

"I wouldn't want to do a show that looked and smelled just like another show. So you really have to force yourself to think hard about what's like what hasn't been seen, what hasn't been done. Particularly for network, because on cable there's a little, and I haven't really done much cable at all, only two or three series, but there's a luxury there where if your show fails, nobody really notices."

"“We did a whole send-out when she died, we did a tribute to Magic at the end of one of the episodes and stuff,” Fleiss recalls. “So I’ve always had Rottweilers with me on the sets. I have one now. They’re great dogs.”"

"I think of the Avengers as The Beatles, and the Guardians are the Rolling Stones. That is really how I feel about the groups."

"Science fiction literature's focus is on ideas, the concept of change, and the impact on humanity. Those concepts are hard to capture on film. They work better in the mind."

"Each story should be enjoyed on its own merits, without relying on its connection to a larger universe, adding that shared universes should enhance individual stories, not the other way around."

"The Flash resets many things, not all things. Some characters remain the same, some do not ."

"I love raccoons. I had a raccoon figurine collection as a kid, and I now have two movies with 'Ranger Rick' jokes in them. I love 'em. They come in my backyard all the time, and we just stare at each other like a couple of idiots."

"I like Jason Statham movies, like The Transporter or whatever. I watch them all the time when they come on TV. Then I saw 'Crank,' and I couldn't believe how awesome it was."

"My ambition has intersected at this moment where I have the experience and knowledge to direct, the opportunity within a franchise to step behind the camera and [the ability] to maximize it by having a production company. It’s my turn to make my impact while I have the energy and strength. I’ve got to tee up the ones that come after, but at the same time hyper-focus on what needs to be done right now. It’s the moment I’ve waited for my entire life. This is it. This can dictate the next 10, 15, 20 years."

"I think for me it's just that I was lucky enough to have a lot of work. I'm a firm believer in that what's for you is what's for you, and coming out of that situation — not to give it, you know, any energy and kind of move from that — is you know, it was an experience for me to grow and learn."

"The one thing I don’t want to get is typecast. The first two major roles I have so far, I went from being on a baseball team to being in a gang, and then being a drug dealer. The type roles I get are probably because of the style I have, with the braids and cornrolls. The way I present myself is what will determine the roles I get. I’m trying to switch it up, probably go for the casual look. With the braids out, I should have more options. I’m being thrown urban roles right now, but I don’t plan on doing these my whole life. For right now, it’s going pretty good."

"But I think about legacy a lot. What I leave behind is something that I think about a lot."

"My experience being on set, since I was a kid, is having a shorthand with a lot of the crew that have been around throughout my movie career. And I had a clear vision for the story that I wanted to tell, because I’ve been marinating on it and developing it for such a long time. It was the most challenging thing that I’ve ever done, by far. Daily, I was pushing myself to new limits, learning how to communicate and get what’s in your head out, and have other people pick up on that passion and enthusiasm, so that they want to execute your vision to the best of their ability. That’s not an easy task to do."

"I’ve been blessed to work with a lot of incredible directors, and having a lot of guidance and mentors and people that I look up to, who inspired me to be on that storytelling level. I’ve been quietly watching and putting together these folders of things that I wanna try, for quite some time now. I was just waiting for the right opportunity to step up and get behind the camera."

"There are a lot of roles and auditions that call for someone my age. The young people are taking over. They are really coming up the acting industry. There are lots of roles out there but you have to have the right people and the right connections to get called for auditions. You sometimes have to be in the right place at the right time. At the same time, you don’t always have to be in “the business” to get a good break. There are outstanding breakthroughs and “unheard of” actors doing great jobs. You don’t need the connections, but it helps."

"For all the success that I’ve had, there’s going to be negative reactions and opinions thrown at me. That just comes with it. When you’re younger, you’re just frustrated, but when you start to realize that this is what it is, you start to understand. I’m never going to make everybody happy. People are always going to have their opinions about me. People can make up something completely false that has no fucking substance or anything, and there’s going to be 100,000 people that are going to believe it and that’s going to be their opinion of me. I can’t do anything about that, and I’ve just got to accept that and keep moving in my purpose. People that know me know my heart. But people that know me for my work . . . they know what I allow them to know. The fact that I’ve been so closed off about a lot of parts of my life was a personal choice. As I’ve gotten older and a little more mature and comfortable in my own skin, I’ve become less concerned about it."

"I’m always willing to prove myself. When you come from where I come from, and everybody doesn’t get those opportunities and breaks — that luck, or whatever — you start to question why you’re getting the things that you get. Why am I successful in life? Or why did I go this way, and everybody went that way? That builds up on you after a while."

"When I was younger, I don’t know if I could have handled the onslaught of opinions and being picked apart, and also being conscious of what the other person’s going to go through. It takes a special person to deal with that."

"When you come from where I come from, and everybody doesn’t get those breaks, that luck, you start to question, ‘Why am I successful in life? Why did I go this way, and everybody went that way?’"

"Growing up on set, in the industry, over 20 years, and starting out doing background work and extra work and just seeing the sets evolve and seeing everybody’s job and seeing how a real production took place, I finally got to this place in my career where I wanted to tell a story and not just be in front of the camera to execute somebody else’s vision."

"Everything that I’ve been through—everything that I’ve been taught, all the successes that I’ve had, all the failures that I’ve had, all the wisdom that I was given, I’ve learned from people who have done it before me."

"When you walk in my room, you can’t look in one direction without seeing storyboards everywhere. When I’m literally in the depths of the room in the far dark corner, I can play this game. Because if I were to play it out here, I would be looking around, like, ‘What am I doing? I’m playing a video game when I should be doing other things.’"

"I’m playing to be autonomous. That’s liberation, because you’re really controlling your own destiny, and it gives you the freedom to make an impact where you see fit. It’s like, ‘All right, I can do what I need to do, when I need to do it, and there’s no asking."

"There are roles that I passed on that I knew I didn’t have enough life experience to play. I was like, ‘What can I pull from?’. But I finally found what love was."

"A great agent doesn’t have to be a great organizer, but a great agent could advocate for relationships with organizers. What we are doing today will make our values heard and our voices heard. We’ve got to keep agitating things. We can’t be complacent. We can’t let this moment just pass us by, we have to continue to put our foot on their necks."

"To be young, Black and successful — and disruptive — in this industry, there’s a certain navigation to get to the place I need to get to. This is the most open that things have been for somebody who’s in favor right now, and you try to hold that moment and stay in it for as long as you can."

"I have a bit of advice to offer. Hold on to the people you are close to, and love them fiercely. Get up every morning and live like there is no tomorrow. Because one day you'll find it's true."

"I fought hard for her to get that job. I wanted her to get that job. And she was paid her money. She was paid the money for the budget that we had."

"I abused and betrayed the trust of another sibling, my sister, my blood. I’m sorry, Mo’Nique. I’m sorry."

"Oftentimes, we get scared because we’re too afraid to lose something, We’re too afraid to lose the mortgage payment...too afraid to lose our stuff, so we’ll just go along to get along. Be unafraid, even if [you have to] stand alone. That’s what has to happen. Because when you look in the mirror, you’ve got to be OK with the one looking back at you."

"What you’re saying to the community is, as Black women, you’re devalued. And if you stand up and you make a stand and you say We need equality and we have to say what’s right and what’s fair."

"And stop hiding behind what you call is negative comments…what people are beginning to do is see you for who you are."

"So often times, we do it to ourselves. But, I just can’t. Understand, I love my sister. However, when you know you’re being fed the wrong food, you must say, ‘I can’t chew this, y’all."

"Inequality is devastating and it's extreme."

"There was an energy in that building — of honesty, of truth-telling, of freedom, and that was what that show was, Because it is my journey and my story, where I pick and choose to tell it is totally up to me."

"My imperfections always surface at the most inopportune time. Usually on live TV, in an interview situation, and always on a red carpet. There’s always something happening, but that’s life. You just have to move forward."

"You cannot be a good storyteller if you don’t have life experiences, and you can’t relate to people."

"I had made so many promises to myself about things that I wanted to explore, things I wanted to try, and how I would like to grow as a person that I had made no time for. And I thought, 'That's enough."

"Celebrity is a different job than what I’m interested in. I like the collaborative, creative experience. It’s a blue-collar job, you know? Getting together with a group of people where we’re all solving problems together, and everybody does their thing. They’re all at the top of their game, and everyone is giving it their all."

"I wasn’t healthy. I wasn’t taking care of myself. I was the last thing on my list of priorities."