SHAMEIK MOORE

For, like, 98 percent of my life, I'm not nervous. But as soon as I'm nervous, I start shaking or something, and I lose my cool.

I'm working to be the best - the very best. There are a lot of people in this industry, and I'm trying to be the best. I'm working to affect history in a positive way.

I'm from a neighborhood that isn't amazing - it's not the worst, either - and I was happy. But Atlanta is just one area of a country. There's a world out there I wanna touch.

I love watching action movies. I love 007.

As I'm starting to grow up, and things are happening, I'm going to have to take off my pants, and I want to have on some attractive underwear. When it says Versace on your underwear, people will say, 'Man, he's fresh to his undies.'

All these interviews I'm doing - this is the kind of stuff that I was dreaming about doing when I was younger. I was praying for people to want to write about me. I wanted people to hear my music. I wanted to perform. I wanted to be on billboards.

I have the most respect for Rick. You're always going to see a Shameik Moore and Rick Famuyiwa film.

My lyrics are for strong, independent women who are both smart and fashionable.

I think it speaks to people in 2015, right now. We address real situations. It's real life! Everything that happens in 'Dope' could happen today.

I got my ears pierced when I was 12. I looked up to my older cousin, and he had earrings. Will Smith on 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' had the left earring. So I started with the left earring, and then two years later, I got the other one pierced.

I can't assume that people see me the way I see myself. I have to show them. But I can't do it in a way where it's too much, where it's rude. I feel like when you're a king, you lead. And I just see myself as a king, or as something more than just a regular human being.

My auntie and uncle live in Inglewood, and I used to stay with them when I would come to L.A. to audition for pilot season and other things like that.

My whole thing is I want to affect history in a positive way. I want the timeline to be, 100 years from now, when we look back, it's going to be like, the world was like this, and then Shameik Moore hit the world, and everything changed for the better. It was a new light. Something special.

When I went to auditions, if I didn't know the lines, I wasn't getting the job. If I knew my lines, if I knew what I was supposed to be doing, I got the job. And it was always like that - if I'm working hard, I get the result that I'm looking for.

When I was 12, my dad took me to see 'You Got Served.' I walked out a whole different person.

Music was always heavily involved with my spirit. My entire family is Jamaican. It's nothing but reggae music and those kinds of vibes.

I record myself talking. I have a journal. And when I listen back, I remember why I wanted certain things. I listen to me at 16, saying 'I really wanna be on TV... I want a movie, a huge movie...' and I'm just like, 'Yo, I'm humbled. I'm living a life I imagined.'

Everything about the movie 'Dope' is real artistry, and everybody put their full hearts and souls into it. It's a passion project; it's not one of those things everybody got paid a million dollars to do. Everybody on there wanted to do it. Everybody there believed in the project, and we just went for it. We all love each other.

Everything I do, I put my full heart into. I don't want to be just another actor, another singer, another artist. I want to invent history.

I don't like going to the movies with people that talk a lot. They want to have a conversation or something.

In middle school, I saw Chris Brown live, and I thought, 'I can do that.' And these girls are screaming for him.

30058 is the ZIP Code I grew up in in Atlanta, so the music represents where I'm from, and the mindset of '30058.' It's got a touch of reggae and a hip-hop feel. It's soothing, I think.

I'm not some crazy party animal. That's OK. If you say you want to be the best, you have to do what the best do - train, research, eat right, take care of yourself, and be. Don't pretend.

I was the one that was always dancing and got along with everybody, but I also spoke my mind. If I didn't agree with something the teacher would say, I'd tell her, so I would get in trouble for things like that. I've always been a good/bad boy.

Meak's World is the world I created when I was 12, when I got into the industry. I said, 'I have to do it myself. It's not going to be given to me. It has to be Meak's World.'