I'm very grateful to have been able to work with so many talented filmmakers and actors during my career. I've learned so much from them. It's been my college, in a way.

I started shooting 'The Defenders' two days after I wrapped' Friday Night Lights.' I was doing research for 'The Defenders' throughout - interviewing lawyers and sitting in courtrooms just to watch - but there's something fun about throwing yourself in the water and learning by doing.

When I was 12 years old, I got involved with an organization called Artists for a New South Africa. One of its missions is to help with HIV/AIDS awareness.

I'm very picky about the kind of work that I do, and I'm fortunate to have been able to work with great directors and great actors who've helped me grow as an artist.

Injustice is either very blatant - you walk down the street and someone calls you a name; you don't get a job because of your gender or your skin color or your sexual preference - but injustice is also very subliminal.

They did laugh; they did fall in love. And while they were under incredibly oppressive conditions, they constantly were trying to steal pleasures. When you go back to the slave narratives, and you read books like the 'Bullwhip Days' or 'Incidents in the Life of the Slave Girl,' they will share what life was like, and it's a 365-degree view.

I've always been proud that I come from people who were activists, who have this indomitable spirit. I am proud to have inherited the spirit of resistance and revolution.

There's this notion, kind of like unspoken, that you can't live your dreams and be a mom. You can't have a career and be a mom. There's still that preconceived notion, and I reject that.

Before being a mom, I remember going on a Twitter rant during the whole George Zimmerman trial in Florida about my younger brothers and how one day I'll be the mom of a black son.

Henry Louis Gates is such a wealth of knowledge in himself.

I can get a little scattered and want to be everywhere and want to do everything for everyone.

Marian Wright Edelman is a mentor and hero of mine.

I'm a research queen.

The slave narratives, there is a wealth of research there, because you are hearing stories from the first person account, and that's a whole different thing than reading about it in the history books. You're able to really personalize it.

It's not very exciting to go to work to just have your character's identity being defined by her relationship with her male counterparts.

I read so many scripts, and it's not really exciting to just be the girlfriend.

There's a lot of progress happening in TV. You have amazing shows like 'How to Get Away With Murder.' You have people like Shonda Rhimes, Lee Daniels with 'Empire,' and Jason Katims with 'Friday Night Lights' and 'Parenthood.' You have people behind the scenes writing complex women.

There's still a really divisive residue in our nation that's called racism and prejudice and oppression and sexism.

We never get fashion shows in L.A.! Ever!

The real trendsetters are the ones who rebel. Those are the ones who everyone in fashion eventually follows.

How often do you see young actors playing scholars? Or striving to be intellectuals, you know? It's not that often.

I'm a nature lover.

It's such a transition and it's so empowering to become a mom, but there are also many challenges. Just remind yourself, every minute, every day, to be kind to yourself.

After being a mom, we are now in a different chapter in our womanhood, and instead of trying to be our old selves or get our old body back, we should embrace who we are now.