Mike Colter Quotations

Ridley Scott was part of the production team on 'The Good Wife.' I auditioned on my iPhone, and it moved very quickly after that, as they thought I was right for the role, and pretty soon I was filming in Iceland for two months.

When you're acting, it's all about you and the person in front of you, and I think in life we forget to apply the same technique, and we get caught up in the panic of what we're trying to do - how overwhelmingly daunting the task of trying to become an actor is.

I hate the gym, so I try to diversify my workouts with swimming and basketball. Indoors, it's less boring than running. I do find that diet is key. I eat lots of lean protein, no soda, no fast food or fried foods, and a lot of water. But I love food and often cook.

I have a wonderful wife I met at Rutgers while we were both there. She was in the Ph.D. program. She is not an actress. She definitely brings balance to my life. We actors can tend to bore anyone with shop talk.

Having worked on 'Halo: Nightfall' and gotten a taste for what 'Halo' has to offer, it definitely has me interested in picking up the games and getting familiarized more with the 'Halo' universe.

I'm always game for creating a new character, and I liked the idea of putting something new into the 'Halo' universe.

Marvel does a fantastic job about bringing human stories - because you're telling big stories with a heart at the centre of it - and that's what connects all of the characters to our audience members.

As artists, we are so not in control most of the time of the content or the narrative of our characters, and sometimes writing takes a turn and it's not something we necessarily have control over. It's just a lot of random dumb luck, so when things click, you've just got to enjoy it.

As an actor, you just want to continue to work on things that you like. You can be in this business a long time and consistently working and just be totally artistically unfulfilled.

As an actor, you're trying to capture the nuances of real life, but voice work is almost over-acting.

I'm one of those people who is colour blind to a certain degree. And that doesn't mean I'm not acutely aware of race in our country and abroad and in the world. I know what's going on, and I'm very aware of it.

The big budget films have money to do things that are not necessarily essential but sure are comforting. The catering is usually much better. And you have way more of anything you could possibly need. You definitely get a trailer. My shirt and suit for 'Million Dollar Baby' were tailor made.

As for facial hair, I think I decided it was a good look after graduate school. I always shave it myself and trim my own beard. I change the look depending on the role. For 'Million Dollar Baby,' I had no facial hair. For 'Men in Black 3,' I had no facial hair but did wear a wig.

Law enforcement has always had informants and people they've had to deal with, who walk a certain line. They're choosing between the lesser of two evils. They're befriend one person to gain access to another person, who's a bigger fish.

You see a lot of Baptist churches in Harlem, you see a lot of the same kind of cuisine, the soul food - there's a lot of places that remind you of its southern roots.

When you look at Harlem - and I lived there almost five years - most of the people who live in Harlem are transplants. They migrate to Harlem from another place. A lot of them are from the south, so they bring those southern influences with them.

Harlem is really a melting pot for a lot of different people.

I don't have social media so I'm kind of in a bubble, but I hear there's a lot going on.

Love, for me, is always wanting the best for the other person even if it's not what's best for you.

I don't practice yoga, but it's on my list of things to try again. I gave it a shot, but the class was too advanced for me, and I felt overwhelmed and a little embarrassed.

I worked at a group home for a survival job years ago, and kids who have a rough home life have always tugged at my heart-strings. I also care a lot about animal cruelty.

History repeats itself over and over again, but most of us have short memories.

Never say "never" about anything, because if you do, life has a way of humbling you.

I don't have a routine, but I have used meditation to just decompress and focus.

Most of the people you look at in the early days of Harlem - the zoot suits, the music, the style of fashion, the vibrant colors - that's all influences from the south.

It's hard to articulate what everybody else is feeling.

A lot of times in life, women want to talk, but men don't want to listen, and if they do want to listen, they turn it back to themselves.

Dialogue is not always the best way to show emotion, to show your thought process, or to reveal yourself, as a character.

As an actor, you learn, every time you work.

If things are not working out, they just stop going forward.

When you're casting, you get a page or two - just enough to do the scene. Now that you're in the world, you get the whole script.

Auditions are great, and you definitely want to continue to make progress as an actor, you want to continue to see some advancement in your career. But when you get out there, you don't realize how many auditions you have to go on before you actually get work.

I met some people in college and I kept cracking away until someone pointed me in the right direction.

My mother wanted to be an actress. She wanted to follow her dreams and she never really got a chance to do that. I feel like I'm following her dream in a way. She's proud of me for doing what I wanted to do, but at the same time, I'm kind of taking up where she left off.

Some people get divorced, they leave the person for a couple of years, then they remarry. Relationships are very, very strange.

When you're the lead and on most of the call sheets, some people have expectations of you and whether you like it or not, you kind of set the tone.

I rarely feel like I'm in chaos, but when I am, I usually [retreat] and try to find the eye of the storm; if I'm still and listen and don't engage, maybe the chaos will subside.

Never take anything at face value. Dare to question and seek the truth.

In real life, people end up doing things because it's convenient and it works for them. You don't get up every day regretting what you're doing.

I'm pretty relaxed on what people should be able to do as long as they're not hurting anybody else.

The writers are very good about misdirection and changeups, and that's what's great about it. We always think we know what's going to happen and then they throw a curveball that you don't see coming.

What I enjoyed about being in the world of Jessica Jones, as Luke Cage, is that I wasn't front and center because it was Jessica Jones' story, but it allowed me to find the character from a different perspective.

As an actor you just want to continue to work on things that you like. You can be in this business a long time and consistently working and just be totally artistically unfulfilled.

It's a long arc and a long storyline, and I think it leaves us in a great place to see how we interact again, whether that be for The Defenders, Jessica Jones Season 2, or whatever. We'll see. I don't know.

I've always wanted to be on a show that's well respected and had critical acclaim and that people like to watch, and at the same time find something that for me as an actor is interesting and challenging.

I'm a very un-excitable person. I always take things with a grain of salt, I'm always very even-keeled, and I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

As an actor, I need to get excited about something that I can actually relate to.

I've never really been into doing a lot of social media, but it's a great way for people to talk amongst themselves on a large platform and to have a large conversation with people who also enjoy the same thing.

So often, when you're playing the lead in your own show, it is all about you.

Jessica Jones is very unique, and we are all in awe of the response from the public. It seems that everyone connected with the character, and we enjoyed shooting it.

When something tragic happens in the world and I realize that, for the most part, I am powerless to stop it.

When I find material that gives me a natural yet unique character point of view and has well- developed characters throughout the script, it makes the hairs on my arm stand up.

I guess it's a bit cliché, but as an actor, I really admire good writing. There are a lot of great ideas out there, but it's the execution that really makes it work.

I'll get a nice little break, after doing Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. Whether I'm in [his show], I don't know, but there's The Defenders.

Sometimes you meet someone at an inopportune moment and it doesn't work out, but then you see them again five years later and you're in different places and it's a better time.

As professionals, we just try to keep the jokes to a minimum, when we're in a certain situation. When we're not doing that, we're joking.

The awkward thing is the people in the room besides us. It's not us. It's just the 20 or 30 people that are around on set, who normally wouldn't be on set. That's always interesting.

This show [Jessica Jones] was exploring the aftermath, and that is unique. You're sitting there going, "I know what happens. This is the aftermath." You watch her daily life and how she dealt with people, like new prospects for love or friends that were close to her, but she didn't know if she could trust them or if they were enemies.

As a male, I thought the female voice was so strong, unique, real and accessible to most females. In some way, shape or form, they felt like they could relate to it, on some level, because they went through some form of unspeakable horror like what Kilgrave did to Jessica [Jones]. That, in itself, is something that most people shy away from, even in shows that are on cable or in movies.

We pride ourselves on all being unique shows.

I'm actually filming all the time, and I don't have much time to do anything. I've always been that way.

Sometimes when you do things right, there's no results.

Things don't happen that fast in real life.

I think when people talk about art imitating life, you're in real time.

My family, they're not really that involved in what I do. Career-wise, they're very supportive. They're involved after the fact. I don't tell them anything usually until I'm finished filming it or mid-way through filming it.

Comic book heroes are an important part of our culture.

I see fans all the time. They're always very complimentary and they're always very eager to talk and to share their experiences or get a selfie. They're really, really loyal. And intense.

I try to stay incognito as much as I can. I don't go places that people would expect to see me because I'm trying to lay low.

We're dealing with that question now, in the media. How does the judicial system work? There's never going to be a clear-cut answer, but it's a conversation and a conflict in the community. It's not a white thing or a black thing. It's a society thing and a culture thing, and we've gotta figure it out.