ZAZIE BEETZ

Growing up I definitely, definitely had a bunch of things of, 'Um, am I black enough?' - and I guess specifically, 'Am I German enough?' Why are we measuring blackness?

Bad bread is the one thing I refuse. I need good bread.

The truth is all kinds of people exist everywhere. So let's tell their stories, too.

When the Berlin Wall came down, my dad left to visit the U.S. He met my mom at this summer camp where they were both working, so I grew up between Washington Heights and Germany speaking two languages.

The version of me on the Internet, it's not me. It's one portion.

For me, a big thing growing up was naturalness - both in being and appearance. My mom never let me relax my natural hair. For so long, I thought I was ugly, and I still sometimes struggle with that. But now I've come to feel like this is me.

At home in my room, I'm funny, but if I'm commissioned to be that, I don't feel very funny.

I like representing different kinds of black people - showing they exist.

I do wonder if it's my responsibility to spread a message of environmental awareness or political awareness or just, like, don't be racist or whatever, but I don't want to be the person who's like, 'Everyone be vegan forever!'

I used to work at Cafe Mogador in the East Village. I love Mogador, but I feel like working almost anywhere will kind of ruin it for you. There was a lot of panicking while being a waitress there. I don't like to think about that. But I love the food.

Agriculture is one of the biggest causes of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Cars? Planes? Trains? Nope. Cow farts.

I identify with my womanhood before anything else because that's what I deal with when I am alone.

For me, fear manifests itself in snoozing and inactivity. I just become so sleepy, any time of day, when something needs to be done. I sometimes go days without responding to texts or reading books or being able to process much of anything beyond the sun slowly creeping through my living room windows.

I used to cry on planes. I don't anymore. It probably took almost a hundred agonizing flights to get there. Now, when I take off, a smile quivers on the corner of my lips.

I worry about not being able to be myself day to day. But I know people way more famous than me who have been able to do that.

What I crave, and what I want to see on television, is when you see a minority character, not to have it being about them being black or Asian or Latino. If you watch 'Friends,' for example, it's not about a group of people being white. It's about a group of people being friends, you know? You should just let the characters exist.

I feel like I pull inspiration, in general, from how I feel on a day.

One day, I'd like to tackle a biopic. I grew up very influenced by Josephine Baker, Billie Holiday, and Nina Simone.

I feel like, every six months, I learn my hair or my skin anew and find a new thing that I like to do, and then I abandon it and move on.

My father is German; my mother is African-American. Growing up, I visited my grandparents in Berlin a lot. I would not see any other person of color for three weeks. People would stare. They would say things like, 'Oh, you look like chocolate - I want to eat you up!'

I was an only child until I was 15, so I was able to reap the benefit of that.

Growing up, my aunts would always put in hair ties and bows and all kinds of stuff, and I always hated it.

I actually didn't think I was going to do TV because I don't really watch TV. I'm a little bit pretentious, and I do these little indie movies, so I envisioned that more as the path for myself.

I've had acting teachers say, 'If you want to do anything else but act, that means you're not an actor,' which I think is stupid!

I wish I was a morning person.