Derek Luke Quotes

At a very young age, I was in Germany watching TV and I told my mom I wanted to be an actor. She said, 'Go for it.' When my dad retired from the military, we moved to Los Angeles, and it all kicked off.

When I did make the decision to focus on acting, I think my mother was just relieved for me that I had finally started to focus.

No one I knew in Sydney was thinking about how they might come to America and become a movie star. That would be considered delusions of grandeur. My parents were supportive, though. They just told me to keep at it as long as I was having fun.

I ask myself a lot of question about my work as an actress. We shall see. Plenty of friends tell me, 'Of course you must continue acting,' but I'm not sure.

Well I was eight years old, and I have an older cousin who is three years older than me and she was doing acting, commercials, and modeling at the time and... to see my cousin doing that was really inspiring and I wanted to do it. So I went to my mom and I asked her if I could do it, and for the acting part of it, she made me study for a year.

Well, I made an announcement to my family at 8 that I wanted to be an actor, and I focused like a laser beam on it. I never had a fallback plan.

My parents weren't keen on the giving up of school at the beginning to go into singing and dancing, but once they saw I was serious about it, they gave support. I was quite stubborn about my decision, and in the end, they realised it was for the best.

My mother loves to remind me that about the age of four, I made a somewhat formal announcement that I was going to be a plumber when I grew up.

I always wanted to be a doctor and go to art school, but I thought I'd regret it if I didn't act.

We're not an acting family, but my parents have always encouraged me.

I had to decide between doing 'Issaq' and continuing school and I chose 'Issaq.'

I didn't have drama in high school. So when I graduated high school and started at Wayne State in Detroit, I told my parents I was going to major in theater. And they were like, 'OK. Why? You've never done it.' But, it was just what I wanted, and they came to see my very first show and, from then, completely supported me.

When I told my dad about my decision to take up acting, he supported me in every possible way. He's very proud of me. Mom's happy because, as an avid TV viewer, she loves seeing me up there.

My parents wanted me to be a doctor, and they weren't very happy at the idea of me choosing acting as a career. Everyone in my family went to university - my older brother is a lawyer - but when they saw me for the first time at the theatre, they thought, 'OK.' They like it very much now.

My parents, once I made it clear to them that I wanted to do science, they were totally sympathetic.

Initially, my father opposed the idea of joining films and did not want me to move out, but now I'm closest to him and have his full support.

Unlike a lot of actors, my father encouraged all his kids to go into show business.

So, from a very young age, my mom tells me that I wanted to be Michael J. Fox. I didn't want to be an actor. I just wanted to be Michael J. Fox for awhile. And then, I realized that he was an actor, so I pursued that.

Actually, I started to become an actress because I met someone who was just a friend and I found his life wonderful, I thought, Oh my god, you can travel, you're free, you can do what you want, you're the boss. And then I met an actor and I was in love with him.

Even though I played national level badminton, I told my parents when I was in 10th that I was not interested in continuing. Being a model or actor fascinated me from a young age, and I even did a couple of ads when I was just eight years old.

When I told my parents I wanted to be an actor, my mom was, like, 'I think I heard you say lawyer.'

I dabbled a little bit in acting in high school, and then I forgot about it completely. And then at about 25 I went to a class. I don't think anybody in my family thought it was an intelligent choice. I don't think anybody thought I'd succeed, which is understandable. I think they were just happy that I was doing something.

I think my parents love that I want to do something a little different than what they do.

Where I came from, the idea of going into show business was just ridiculous; in fact I didn't tell anybody because I knew people would laugh at me. So I sort of snuck around and got some pictures and got a resume together and, of course, lied and said I did all kinds of things I didn't do.

Even though momentarily I thought about being a doctor, I was always involved in theatre and did a drama degree. I just didn't have the guts to go, 'Yes, I'm going to be an actor,' until I was probably 21.