Biography

Was accepted into Yale University and Dartmouth College but declined both.

Growing up in the Bronx, she attended the same local Boys and Girls Club of America as Jennifer Lopez.

Jennifer Lopez was her high school dancing teacher.

Her father is African-American and her mother is of Jamaican ancestry (including African, English and Scottish).

Also graduated from the private, girls' Spence School in New York City (1994), where she acted in plays. Gwyneth Paltrow, Emmy Rossum and Sally Pressman also attended Spence School.

I don't think I'm even close to fulfilling my potential. And I think also that, unlike a pianist or a flutist, an actor has an instrument that is constantly changing.

I try not to let my politics limit me artistically, and you know say like "Well, I can't do that because I don't ever want to play a black prostitute" or "I can't do that because I don't ever want to play, you know a drug addict." I really try not to do that. What's important to me is to make sure my characters ring true that they reflect a trueness to society because if I can bring out the true humanity of a character than I'm not perpetuating a stereotype I'm actually revealing a truth.

It's in the same way that I don't read my reviews. I try not to get involved in all that stuff because what's important to me is the work and however the work lives in the world is out of my control.

My very first feature, Our Song (2000), was an independent film that was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. I always feel like I was able to start off my career on the right foot by starting off in independent film because that's where the real work ethic is and that's where the real artistry is, and every now and then you're lucky with a movie like Django Unchained (2012) to do a studio film that's filled with just as much artistry and passion.

[on her mother's reaction to her in role of Ophelia in a student production of "Hamlet"] I thought, "Wow." This woman who held me in her womb for nine months -- and knows exactly who I am -- for a moment something about this world allowed her to suspend her disbelief and believe I was some other person in some other time. I thought, "This is powerful.".