Andre Holland Quotations

When I was in school, and even after, I did a lot of classic plays, and I guess it sort of extended into film.

My goal has always been to try to live up to every ounce of my potential. For me, that means working with the best people and working with the best material.

Never lived in L.A. I've always done the New York thing.

I grew up in Alabama in a very small town and didn't have access to the finest of anything, really. But my mother was the kind of woman who just wanted us, me and my sisters, to be exposed to any and anything she could find.

I did my undergrad at Florida State, got a Bachelor's, and then I got my Masters in Acting at NYU. So I've spent a lot of time in the classroom.

Frankly, I think that's something that black people in America have often done - finding ways under very, very difficult circumstances to be subversive, but also to push things forward. And I think that applies to music. I think it applies to dance. I think it applies to a number of things.

If someone wanted to do a biopic about me, I would like for them to consult my family.

I think that's what makes characters interesting - when you paint a person into a corner, and you see what they do to get out of that corner. It's what makes drama drama.

I think that a man should not be shy; you should say what you really think and feel - put it out there.

I studied acting in NYU's graduate program, in which we covered everything from Ibsen and Chekov to August Wilson and David Mamet.

Theater is where I have the most experience and feel most at home, but I'm really, really loving film.

I just hope to work with great people, and do things that are challenging for me and that I can be proud of and not have to hide my face about. Those are my guidelines.

When you're playing Shakespeare, it forces you to think and feel and speak all at the same time, which really is what acting is. It expands your imagination and expands your size of thinking.

I love to sing. I'm definitely not a very good singer, but when I'm in my shower I get down for sure.

People do come up to me quite a lot. I get called all of it. I rarely get called my name; it's usually "Hey, Dr. Edwards!" or "Algernon." The most common thing is, "You're the black doctor on that show!" I'll take any of it, because I've definitely been called much worse things.

There are so many brilliant, trained actors of color in America. If you just think about it, every year in the spring Julliard and NYU and Yale and hundreds of schools across the country graduate classes of trained actors, and in those classes are actors of color. So to say that there aren't enough actors of color is factually inaccurate.

All the craft skills that I have, I feel like I developed and honed in drama school. It's the most important thing for me.

I think working on Shakespeare was a big part of my time at drama school. I'm so glad that I got to know Shakespeare and got a chance to play great parts in Shakespeare, because it really teaches you - or taught me, anyway - everything.

Working on Shakespeare and learning about Shakespeare was the big takeaway for me.

My goal has always been to try to live up to every ounce of my potential.

The surgeries were the hardest scenes for me because it's literally balancing so many balls in the air, at the same time, and each surgery is different.

You turn up in the morning, you get through hair and make-up, and then you are on set working until it's time to go home. And I love that. Coming from the theater, you just turn up and you're ready for whatever happens. That energy really appeals to me.

I definitely want to work with people who are artists and who are interested in being their best version of themselves.

People sometimes say, "What is your dream role?" I don't really have a dream role. I'll know it when I see it.

Things maybe take longer usually when it comes to TV - especially network TV. There are usually multiple levels that you have to go through in terms of the casting director, the producers, the studio, the network, reading with other people.

Whenever I have a play or opening or anything going on in my career, my parents always come up and see it.

When you live in an environment where you aren't allowed to be fully who you are, you aren't taken seriously, and you aren't respected. What that actually does to a person's confidence and psyche is really fascinating to me.

With theater, depending on the audience, the show is different every night and really requires your constant concentration. With film, it's more possible to focus for shorter, more intense bits of time.

With 'Selma,' I grew up in Alabama, 45 minutes away from Selma. I have gone to that commemorative march many times with my parents.

Everybody gathered at my Aunt Hannah's house, and we sat around and talked, ate, drank and told lies. That's what people do, and I just sat there and listened.

I started out doing a lot of theater, a lot of Shakespeare, classic plays.

I've lost friends over texting because I'm so bad at it.

A lot of people in the movie business don't have a point of reference for me; nobody really knows who I am.

It's not every day you get to be in a movie about Jackie Robinson, so you want to do it as right as you can.

I've written a couple of scripts. Actually, a pilot. I'm not sure I'm allowed to say, but it's a comedy about three young men in New York City, one of whom may or may not be a romantic like me.

'The Knick' is set in New York during the 1990s, and it takes place around a hospital called The Knickerbocker. It's about a team of surgeons and nurses who are on the cutting edge of medicine.

I need to find those projects more often: the ones that really, really speak to me. I do better work in those situations and have a better time.

I'm the old-school, letter-writing romantic. I know it's out of style, and not a lot of women go for that these days, but that's what I go for.

In '42,' it's like the '40s where racial equality had come into the consciousness of a lot of people, whereas in the 1900s it was sort of a new thing.

I read a lot of W.E.B. Du Bois, who wrote 'The Souls of Black Folk.'

I do enjoy history. That's one of the things that I love about acting is you get a chance to really dive into history and develop a real personal opinion about it.