Quotes from John David Washington

Football is the ultimate team sport. You're dependent on 10 other people on the field to have success on a particular play to get to the common goal, which is the win. On a set, we need everybody doing their job and pulling their weight.

It's a thankless job for police officers, period, but specifically for men and women of color protecting and serving.

There's some men and women out there that are doing their job the right way. They're protecting and serving complete strangers in their communities the right way. And it's a thankless job. Obviously, there's a lot of information out on cops not doing their jobs correctly, but the ones that are should be celebrated.

I'm connected to a Wesley Snipes, and I'm connected to Giancarlo Esposito because of the history of films that we've all been a part of with Spike Lee.

There are a lot of Washingtons that have played football. I could just blend in more and carve out my own name quietly.

I have to keep making films, getting better in my craft, and the way to do that is to work with people who know what they're doing and who can help me.

I've gotten rejected hundreds of times.

In football, I learned about trust, handling failure, embracing discomfort, and rejection, which has helped with the auditions.

I went to a historically black college.

Reinaldo Marcus Green - I'm so blessed an honored to have worked with him.

Spike Lee is a master of tone, so basically, if he wants to do something, he should do it, and Imma listen.

I've been reluctant in doing press stuff - even my Instagram isn't properly managed; I manage it myself. It's kind of by design. I knew that would be what people see first.

The nature of a football team means you're relying on 10 other guys. Even then, that doesn't guarantee a win.

Make America great - to me... it's inclusion. Everybody in America, let's do it together, no matter what color you are. You're American. Let's figure it out.

If I can inspire one person to actually administer change, to want to inspire change, I will follow that person.

I hope people will see how harmful words are and how irresponsible we can be when saying the wrong things at the wrong time to certain people.

I've had the acting bug since I was, like, five. But growing up, I saw how people treated me differently when they knew who my father was, even the stuff I did on the field. Sometimes I'd rush for 100 yards, and the headline would be, 'Denzel's son runs for 100 yards.' That's where the suppression of that bug came from.

Movies are magical. It transcends a lot of hate or human faults in real life because of the fantasy of it all.

I got introduced to Shakespeare at four years old, and I fell in love with the language.

In college, I had an alias: I was Johnny.

As my father started ascending in the business, people around me started to treat me different. Our lives changed. So that anxiety, that sort of resentment, I just funneled it through football.

The injury that ended my time in football turned out to be serendipitous. I tore my Achilles while training for a pending tryout with the New York Giants, and when it snapped, so did my career, basically. That's what led me to gain the confidence to get into the acting world on my own terms.

Ask me trivia on 'Sex and the City,' and I will know it. I rewatch it every year. Samantha? Charlotte? Those are my girls.

A lot of NFL guys are misunderstood.