If I had seen a black woman play Juliet as a little girl, my idea of my place in the world would have been totally different.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I never thought I'd be right to play a Juliet-like character.
Rather nostalgically, I sometimes think I could still play Juliet. Inside, I'm still an incorrigible romantic.
I did a crazy version of 'Romeo and Juliet' once, and I played Romeo.
I thought theater people wouldn't see me if I hadn't trained. I didn't want to just be the Brideshead guy, to spend the rest of my life wearing waistcoats. I got the chance to try everything. Not just Romeos, but pimps and grandfathers and even one role as a woman in a Naomi Wallace play called Slaughter City.
I never wanted to become an actress because I'd read great literature or seen great Shakespeare. It was more just wanting to understand what the people were really like, why they said all the strange things they did.
My plays aren't stylistically the same. Just being an African-American woman playwright on Broadway is experimental.
Doing Shakespeare in the Park has always been a dream. Everyone else says Hamlet, but I want to play Romeo.
And to Shakespeare I owe my vision of the world as a theater, wherein all humans are acting out their parts.
I had played the Virgin Mary in 'Jesus of Nazareth,' and I had done 'Juliet' at the age of 15. People said, 'Where do you go from playing Juliet and the Virgin Mary?' And I said, 'Mother Teresa of Calcutta.'
I'd love to do another film version of 'Romeo & Juliet.' I'm not too picky as long as it's a good story.