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My first job, which I had to take when not more than fifteen, was assistant to a fruit peddler. It seemed all right to me until a little girl told me snootily, 'We never deal with peddler!' Thereupon I resigned, ashamed of what I was doing.

I feel like I've earned respect with how I go about my business, how I carry myself.

What I always say is, 'Do every job you're in like you're going to do it for the rest of your life, and demonstrate that ownership of it.'

I think, as I've gotten older I have realized what a huge privilege it is to even be in this business. I, more than ever, love what I do.

I did every odd job you could possibly imagine: Holding a sign in the rain for 14 hours straight, sweeping up cigarette butts, pouring coffee, running around - anything I could to be on a film set. I wanted to be in the business. So I'd say, 'You need that job done? Fine,' and I became indispensable to people.

As an actor, I'm very much a company person. And this also goes through my life: I have a dread of responsibility. I like someone else to be in charge.

When you walk away from a really wonderful job like that, you start messing with everyone's priorities. It's like you're dissing them.

As I got further into my career, as a character of color, if I was going to have the types of opportunities I felt I deserved, and continue to have them, I was going to have to start creating those opportunities for myself.

When I was 16, I had a job on the cleaning crew at a local hospital. I wore a pink uniform and cleaned bathrooms and buffed the hallway linoleum. Oddly, I don't recall hating the job. I recall getting choked up at the end of the summer when I went to turn in my uniform and say goodbye to the ladies.

My biggest surprises in my everyday job have to do with the challenges of trying to be slightly more responsible as a brand.