Nicole Beharie

There are expectations in how you play your character as a black woman, to be sassy and the same kind of feel, as if there are no quirky black women. I struggle with those things constantly, trying to add dimension to my work, and that's the goal, too.

When I was younger, my father was in the Foreign Service and we lived in Nigeria, Panama, and London, but for the most part I grew up in the South and D.C. I got the travel bug as a little person and I've bounced around a lot.

I was kind of a bully, even though I'm tiny, 5' 2"". As a child, I'd boss other kids around and dress my little brother up, just putting on shows, singing and dressing up.

I went to Juilliard in New York and used to do cabarets just for fun. Occasionally, I would get together with a jazz musician and play at a restaurant for cash. And I've done some background vocals for recording artists.

Everything about us black people is complicated, us being here, being a minority, being a woman, all those things are complicated.

I've been fortunate to work with Alfre Woodard and Jeffrey Wright; people who are artists, have careers, longevity and full lives. That looks good to me.

I was the jokester, the one who made the family laugh.