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My father left... but I tell my mom - and I told my mom this when I was a kid - I said, 'You know what, Mom? Good thing he left because you're a strong woman.'

When I was in my early teens, I remember coming to the conclusion that your life never ends.

When I told my mother that I wanted to be an actress, she said, you can't live here and do that, and so I moved out. I was determined to prove her wrong because she was so sure that I was going to go astray. And that's the juice that kept me going.

Because I was very big and she was very small, my mother had a horrible birth when I was born. So she always said: 'I'm never having any more kids!'

I turned to my mom and said, 'I'm going to be a martial arts movie star.' She didn't believe me, and neither did my dad. They both thought I would grow out of it. That it was a phase. I decided then I was going to do it or die trying.

When I was growing up, my mother only put her foot down once: She said, 'You are going to college.' And that was a lifesaving moment. But she never talked to me about my clothes or hair. So I learned how to parent my kids through her.

My childhood was appalling.

My mom, you know, took off when I was about 6. What ended up happening is I ended up being with my grandparents.

My mother felt it was time that I had some parental control, so I went off to America and went to New York.