Quotes from Uzo Aduba

I try to play serious scenes a little funny and the comedy a little serious.

I dream in color, and I have visions of feelings and energies that I would love to feel.

I left my home in Massachusetts after college to move to New York City to pursue my dreams of acting. I took roles for free. I waited tables. I didn't care because it was work.

I love physicality. I love movement very much.

I love ensemble work. I love making pieces and building things together.

I like to build a character, trying to stretch my imagination as far to the walls of my brain as I can to come up with something that feels truthful and feels real - as close to the skin as I can get it.

I loved Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi. Its about a first-generation African family living in America that has to return home to Nigeria when their estranged father passes away.

I'm realizing, you don't need to change anything about yourself. This is who you are, and it's okay. That's daring.

Onstage, even though you're here together with the other actor, face-to-face, playing out the scene, you also have that other ear pointed out toward the audience and how they're listening. That informs a lot.

I am the daughter of Nigerian immigrants. My mother is a survivor of both polio and of the Igbo genocide during her country's civil war in the late 1960s.

The magic of landing my first role on Broadway went 'poof' in a matter of a few weeks.

I think there's something really thrilling to having to get people laughing about something, and then, when you have them in that comfort space, you can drop the weight into the texture of the story.

My parents wanted us to be well-rounded individuals and really have the American experiences as richly as one can.

I think it's always a good idea to dress as someone you like, as long as it's done in good taste. That's the key.

My finding of myself as an artist, which I think in itself helped me to find just who I am and how I want to express myself, is entirely - in conjunction, of course, with my family, particularly my mom - founded on teachers.

When I was little, I didn't smile much. Don't get me wrong. I was a happy kid, but I couldn't stand the space, dead center, in between my teeth. Yeah, I could whistle through it, but so what? That didn't win me many points on the playground in Medfield, Massachusetts.

As for the fake teeth, they're officially retired. I haven't really found a need or want to wear them.

If you're already somebody who's feeling different, you'll do everything in your power to fix it because children will do everything in their power to fit in and assimilate.

I think of myself as a little kid, and I had a wild imagination, but it was something that was encouraged and supported, which helped steer me into the arts.

My mother is a fighter. After she battled polio and learned to walk again, the doctors told her she would be a cripple her entire life. Instead of accepting defeat, she refused this fate and went on to become the West African Women's Singles tennis champion in college.

I was pursuing the arts with theater in school, and I was doing after-school activities, but not in any real movement towards a professional career.

You think the only thing looking at you is this steel thing, but behind the camera is this living, breathing person operating the camera whose job it is to watch you.

In performance, you dont always feel that sort of family bond right off the top. It sort of develops and grows over time.

I'll definitely wear orange on the red carpet!