ANTHONY MACKIE

The great thing about it is, in Hollywood, certain people are very good at keeping their lives and who they are very private. I've never met anybody as down to earth and cool in Hollywood than Matt Damon.

Everybody knows when you've got a role in a Spike Lee movie, you're gonna blow up. But I happen to be the only person who's had the lead in the two Spike Lee movies nobody saw.

Instead of becoming an engineer like my brother, I moved to New York to be an actor.

I was raised with a sense of entrepreneurship - my father owned a roofing business, and I grew up with the idea that you never want someone telling you what you can and cannot do.

I went to school and made good grades and went to college. So I was afforded an opportunity through my parents' hard work that most people don't have.

Every time I get mad, I grab my hammer and make a bookshelf or something.

Money always changes the game, when you let a dollar come between you and your friends, your cohorts.

In New Orleans, where I'm from, the average household income, with two working parents, two kids, a dog and a little fence is $16,000 a year, so $15,000 for a movie sounds pretty good.

If you look at the true essence of the Black Panthers, they were more of a community protection group.

Art-school girls are very nice.

I did this movie with Spike Lee called 'Sucker Free City,' and that would have to be my favorite role by far. It was just so much fun to work with Spike and shoot in San Francisco.

There was this rapper from New Orleans, Mystikal, who when I hear his music, I hear myself. Whenever I wanna get hyped, I put on Mystikal.

There are a lot of limitations and stigmas that are placed on young actors, specifically young black actors.

If the acting don't work out, I'll have a future in construction.

So I feel like success is opportunity plus preparation, so work begets work, and as long as you're prepared it's going to continue to come your way.

I enjoy where I am and I don't have a problem with being Steve Buscemi, Stanley Tucci, Don Cheadle, or Jeffrey Wright. They're not the lead of every movie they're in, but every time you see them they're really good.

The stage is my first love.

Most of my movies are indies. The best scripts I can find are independent films. But I love big-budget movies, I love craft services!

I got a job as soon as I graduated from school. I always wanted to bartend because I love listening to people and how awful their lives are.

If everyone invested in the neighborhood they lived in, the United States would be a magical place.

Do you want to be an actor, or do you want to be a celebrity? I made that decision when I went to Juilliard. I wanted to be an actor. So, if I get the opportunity to be an actor and do some cool, fun and interesting projects, I'm going to do that.

I'm a firm believer in people who love what they do.

I'm not Josh Brolin or Ryan Gosling. They're more noir than I.

I like movies. Movies have afforded me a modicum of luxuries. The thing about the movies is, if you're bad in a movie, you're bad forever.

Acting is the only medium were people think they can just stand up and do it because they can say lines, but that is not so much the case. You have to study styles and techniques.