Jason Mitchell

Growing up in New Orleans and just being in a poverty-stricken neighborhood gave me that same fire that Eazy had to separate himself from what could have ended up being such a bad situation.

Growing up in New Orleans helped me live a real life. I experienced so many things.

As crazy as it may sound, it's like my tranquil place, where I sit, and I have my candy for a minute, and I just space out, and it's just me and my candy.

I definitely have a lot of different layers inside of me.

I just never really understood the reason I understood movies so well, and I didn't realize that me being such a people-watcher was even a gift at all.

I can remember being young and being outside and watch guys go through what they go through with the police, and old ladies come outside their house and be like, 'Oh, Lord, they're hitting him,' or whatever is happening. You see it right in front of your face.

To be honest, acting was something where I got a chance to be somebody else and forget about the situation I was in.

I want to keep continuously going through all the pages in the book of being an actor.

I want to be able to speak to some real things.

We've got to start making people uncomfortable in themselves and not being comfortable being racist or homophobic or any of that. We've got to cut that out from the inside.

I've realized the person that I've always been and this gift that I've always had just had to be brought to light. It surprised me the most that being more who I am and not who I thought I had to be would make me successful.

John Goodman has such a good way of breaking the ice. He's so good at being himself. A lot of people aren't really good at that. He knows that he's a legend. He knows that he's one of the greatest.