Quotes from Cress Williams

I didn't really know of 'Black Lightning' until I got the script and started to investigate - it wasn't a hero that I grew up with. So I didn't know if his powers were natural or if it was the suit, but those things are, for me, very important. I really like the idea that his powers are his - that whether he has the suit or not, he has them.

I love when I get compliments on my shirts all the time. I'm a t-shirt guy, and I think nine times out of 10, they have some kind of super hero character on them.

As a kid, you just like anything fanciful that you're into, but as an adult, I really love that kind of place where the super hero mythos meets life, where it has that human story; that's what I think I was really drawn to when I started getting into the X-Men.

When you're playing a superhero, you're almost playing two different people. I separate when I'm playing Jefferson Pierce and the days when I'm playing Black Lightning.

I'm a big fan of superheroes and fantasy and sci-fi. I have been since I was a child.

I grew up watching television. I'm a television addict. I had all these heroes, but they didn't look like me.

Growing up, I didn't really read a lot of comics; we didn't really have the money to get them. But I grew up a universal fan of fantasy and sci-fi and watching a lot of TV. There's always this question of 'Are you a fan of sci-fi or fantasy?' But can't you be a fan of both? We love everything fantasy, my wife and I.

What's great about acting is that there's never a moment when you're like, 'OK, I got this, I understand this.' You're portraying life, and it's a craft that only gets better with time - kind of like playing a musical instrument: the more you get to play it, the better you are.

A friend of mine kind of revealed to me that idea that there has been countless Supermen and Batman. But I'm the first person to play Black Lightning. It's exciting to originate a character.

I was a poor kid. I grew up watching film and television but primarily television. And I graduated high school, and I knew I wanted to go to college because nobody in my family had. So I was like, 'I'll go and be a theater major.'

I come from theater, so I'm used to the hierarchy of an actor is just on the ladder, and above that is a director, and above that is a producer, and above that is a writer. But on a television show or film, the whole call sheet thing and being No. 1 on a call sheet, people look to you and almost expect you to exercise this power for good or bad.

I grew up mainly with my mother, and I would see my father from time to time. But I didn't have a constant male figure.

Who I always refer to as my acting mentor when I got into junior college is an acting professor by the name of Tom Blank. He took me under his wing, and he was that strong male figure. He was tough love, but he believed in me, saw everything that I had.

I have a history, even going back to my time in college doing plays, of always hurting myself at some point in whatever I'm in. Like, always! And it's usually my own doing and me being rambunctious and going, 'Oh, I can do that better,' or 'Oh, I can do that quicker,' and it results in injury.

From the moment I turned 39, 40, I really turned a corner and became a person who really enjoys working out. When I don't get a chance to, I miss it. I also just recognized that it would give me career longevity if I kept myself in the best shape I could possibly be in.

I hadn't gotten a chance to do a lot of comedy, so 'Hart of Dixie' was a great place where I got a chance to do that and play.

I realized that being that No. 1 on the call sheet sets the tone. That knowledge, it's important to me that everyone - not just actors, not just myself, but everyone - have a workplace that they enjoy, where they feel respected, that they have creative input, and that they feel is a place that they're excited to go to work.

Back in the day as a kid, I was really drawn to the Hulk because it just felt so human and was probably one of the first stories that I felt emotionally invested in and not just thought it was really cool. You really feel for that person and put yourself in that situation.

There are aspects of small town life that I really like - the routine nature of it, the idea of people knowing you and your likes and dislikes.

My first job was television. I got to where I wanted to go, but through a little bit of a detour. When I first started working in film and television, I hated myself - I didn't like what I was doing at all. All I could think of was, 'I'm overacting. Be smaller.' I started to do that, but that was not fun. I felt confined doing film and TV.

As an actor, the flaws are the things that are juicy to play. If the character is perfect, it can be a little boring.

As an actor, so much of life is out of your control, and it's really not solid.

Sometimes you got to mess stuff up to get change going.

As an actor, the only pressure I have is to just be truthful and to do my best work.