Interestingly enough, my more high-profile things are in uniform. But if you look at my full body of work, there's a lot of stuff that's not in uniform. But I do a lot of stuff in the service, and I think that's just how I'm built physically. It just serves the roles.
I know the musical world as well as I know the comedy world.
I've accomplished enough with the music that I haven't had to go out there and do other things to over-saturate.
My profession is to change myself according to my role and I work hard on it.
Teaching sometimes seems like not one profession, but every profession. We ask them to be doctor and diplomat, calf-herder, map-maker, wizard and watchman, electricians of the mind.
Reality is, I'm an actor and an entertainer, and I really wouldn't know what to do with another profession.
Over the years, I have worked professionally as a musician, photographer, and writer. I've been able to earn my living in other ways, but I always knew I'd come back to acting.
If people choose to judge how you look, that's their situation. I didn't feel that it was a problem. I've played all kinds of parts. I've played glamorous, and unglamorous, and all kinds of people. People want to pigeon hole you, I think.
I don't mind being stereotyped in some way and playing certain kinds of guys, but if I can find something to occasionally get a break from that, that would be nice. And I feel like I manage to.
I worked with Dionne Warwick, did shows with Bette Midler, and then I did the 25th anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Springsteen at the Garden. It was all important stuff because you want people to know you can work, you can sing, and you can still look good!
One of the amazing things about acting now is that you can try different things and have choices.
And I don’t want to turn actress. I want to do both. I wouldn’t have built the confidence to do acting if I didn’t model.
It's one of the main things that I love about my job. You are never playing yourself, so I really love that I get to be someone else, play a different character and take on that persona, but I also have to take on their qualifications.
I've worked with all sorts of random people - everybody from Metallica to Britney Spears to Ozzy Osbourne to Michael Jackson to the Beastie Boys. I've got a really strange CV. It's interesting - I work with a lot of these disparate, different people to learn what it's like to work with random people.
I don't think I'd ever get typecast as a soldier.
I really just love to work, and I don't care if it's TV or movies.
My life has never been defined as Roland Martin, CNN; Roland Martin, TVOne; or Roland Martin, 'Tom Joyner Morning Show.' I'm appreciative of all of those platforms, but I've done all different things. I'm still Roland Martin.
It's just nice to do something a bit different, and I guess when you're an actor, you have the license to do that.
In my own professional work I have touched on a variety of different fields. I've done work in mathematical linguistics, for example, without any professional credentials in mathematics; in this subject I am completely self-taught, and not very well taught.
With acting, if I'm any good at it, my modeling career would never be a hindrance but would rather be a help. And if I'm not, then it doesn't really matter.
I have done a lot of things apart from acting, probably because acting was not very consistent in my life.
I've been a DJ, janitor, ditch digger, waitress, computer instructor, programmer, mechanic, web developer, clerk, manager, marketing director, tour guide and dorm manager, among other things.
I never felt that I was typecast, but I was concerned about it. I certainly made an effort to take as many parts in theater and film that resisted that. If you only learn how to act a certain kind of role, it is very difficult to grow as an actor.
I've been so lucky to be able to go into such different worlds from my own, and that's what makes my job so fun. I just want to continue doing that.
The beauty of my job is I do all different kinds of film directing, not just surf films anymore. And I do stuff from commercials to short films to working on feature films, and none of it is based from where I live. It's all based elsewhere, so I can live anywhere and commute to where I need to go.
