I don't like conflict.

Then again, they're not scripted and I feel it's virtually impossible to be anything but yourself when you're in front of the cameras and cooking so there is a measure of truth in what you see.

I was a quiet teenager, introverted, full of angst.

There is a vast difference between how things seem from the outside and how they feel on the inside.

My thatha's death was the biggest blow I've dealt with in all my life. I have never seen death in my family, especially not of someone who's so close to me... I might be this big guy from the outside, but I'm very sensitive when it comes to my family.

Empire' deals with the black experience, the human experience, sibling rivalry, what it feels like to be ignored or doted upon by a parent, illness, death. There are so many things that I think the audience can identify with.

The economic situation, the high cost of undertaking manufacturing, the supply chain - which is, by the way, dying out also as manufacturing undergoes hardship - make the U.K. not the first place you would look at to make a manufacturing investment.

I've been running from, and toward, death all my life, more aware of it than a person should be.