My parents wanted to name me Karim Hill. My aunt always liked the name Dule, from this actor Keir Dullea, who was in '2001: Space Odyssey.' That's how I got the name Karim Dule Hill. Growing up, I never liked the name Karim because people would ask me, 'Could you dunk like Kareem Abdul Jabbar?'
Popularity's a weird thing. You can't really define it, and it's not cool to talk about, but you know it when you see it. Like a lazy eye, or porn.
I was inspired by Colin Farrell in the fact that he's Irish and has freckles but with black hair. I'm a bunch of different things, Irish, Polish, Native American, and French, but I wanted to tap into that Irish side and be freckle-y with black hair, so that's what I did.
Pop culture is the scaffold we all carry around with us.
I think Jennifer Lawrence is a brilliant role model for young girls, not some of the models that I see on the runway.
Some people admire the aspirational rock star figures whose biopics make it to TV, the people they watched as kids and made them want to play football for England. For some comics, it is often the Doug Stanhopes and the Joan Rivers.
That's the thing with celebrities: the media can't ignore them.
So many people are campaigning, fighting, and even dying to make a statement in the name of humanity. These people have no voice that can be heard by many. I wish more celebrities would take the initiative to be that voice.
There's nobody taller and cooler than Will Smith. He's the coolest tall person, so I'm trying to be like that.
Kim Kardashian is a major player coming off of a reality show, and nobody can turn a blind eye to what she's accomplished, no matter how you see her.
It's a curious thing about celebrity: being somebody who was one of the stars of one of the most popular television shows in history offers an opportunity. I look at it as an ambassadorial opportunity at times, where I can go to places and have the opportunity to do things and meet people that other people don't have.
Anybody can reach anywhere from five to 15 million people weekly making a president look like an idiot, as I did back then, or Tina Fey did with Sarah Palin... You're always preaching to the choir one way or the other.
God love Neil Patrick Harris - how great is that. People grew up with him; they go, 'Oh it's him, it's that little boy and he just happens to be gay. How great for him!' The more of those kind of examples that happen, the better it's going to be.
Well, you don't make any demands to Steven Spielberg.
When I was teenager, Britney Spears was it - that was the pop world that was happening, and I knew I wasn't in it.
This is what's sick about living in L.A. My eight-year-old daughter will point to a woman and say, 'Look! That woman's had too much Botox.' She spots them because they all look a bit like Lord Voldemort from 'Harry Potter.'
You can't trust politicians. It doesn't matter who makes a political speech. It's all lies - and it applies to any rock star who wants to make a political speech as well.
I do struggle with how much and in which way, as an artist or celebrity, that you voice your political views.
When I was growing up, the brands that were most powerful were people brands, like Michael Jackson or Madonna. They stood for something that, perhaps, wasn't wholly who they were, which then became an image that they sold. That's still a brand to me.
Al Gore has a lot to do with the mainstream attention to global warming, but you can't call him a fad, even if he did dance the Macarena.
Coming to LA and working with brands connected with celebrity was a very different experience. I thought it was interesting to work with someone like Justin Timberlake and to work with the phenomenon of celebrity in the U.S., and also to take on the challenge of taking a celebrity brand and adding credibility to it.
There are very few African Americans who have had as much impact on American society as Bill Cosby.
Megan Fox finally listened to me... she is now a salmon fan. She will have salmon at least once a day. She'll go have a bunch of salmon sashimi, and she'll have a cucumber salad and miso soup and some edamame.
I met Gemma, my wife, when she was 12. She had a schoolgirl crush on me and her dad had arranged for her to meet me. Later, she started coming to my concerts, but I only got to know her well after her mother died. I rang to see how she was, and that's how it started.
I do want to make a special appeal to women movie stars to, I think, have a special responsibility these days to stop smoking, not to do it up on screen because the example that's being set is really an awful example.
