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.
So much of what I do is inspired by and for the LGBTQ community and for everyone but, just, being a theater kid and wanting to do stuff that represents us in a positive light.
I think sometimes you have to imagine a fantasy world in which we are represented and visible the way we should be.
I've been fat since fourth grade and bullied for it, but I still knew I couldn't represent every kids' experience.
It's taken over 240 years for there to be a Native American woman elected to congress, so it's definitely significant that we were able to accomplish that.
I'm hoping to see some minorities in executive offices in positions of power, people who see the merit of projects with minority themes. That may or may not happen.
The more visibility, the more opportunities for Asian-American actors to play great roles. It goes to the studios opening up roles they might not have considered Asian actors for. The talent is there. I don't think there needs to be one superstar, but having more roles open up, that's the way changes happen.
If outsider perspectives made 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Dark Knight' into fantastic franchises, imagine what would happen if you brought in the perspectives of women and people of color.
First of all, I'm Middle Eastern; I'm Iranian, so to be playing a leading role in a big Hollywood movie, I think, is possibly one of the first times.
Perhaps, despite my objections, the success of films like: 'The Help,' 'Django,' 'The Butler,' or '12 Years a Slave,' will further persuade Hollywood to widen its view and edit its erroneous perception of what a commercial black film can look like.
Disability is as visual as race. If a wheelchair user can't play Beyonce, then Beyonce can't play a wheelchair user.
If you're going to write, then write a novel with a Haitian woman in it and try and describe her accurately. When you can do that, you can write about people.
They probably do have an Asian Barbie.
Point-blank, there is not enough diversity in media.
I think it's important to show every type of love on a show.
Coming out of the 2016 election, there was a few things that became really clear. One, that black people deserve to have vehicles that represent the breadth of our interests. Two, that we really need to do a better job of being able to communicate what conditions and experiences our communities are facing.
Hillary Clinton knows, as I did know, as my women members know - that a woman being elected to a position, it's not about what it means to that woman. It's not about what it means to Hillary to be the first president. It's about what it means to all of the women in America, that a woman has broken the ultimate marble ceiling and that anything is possible for them and their daughters - and their sons. It's about sons, too.
We have a lot of black British men who are killing it: John Boyega, Stormzy, Anthony Joshua, Tinie Tempah, and Idris Elba, of course. I see them as people I really admire and that's empowering for me because it means I am not alone in this.
Growing up, I didn't think it would be possible to be an actress - I didn't see a lot of Latina faces on TV or in movies. But that didn't stop me from trying. I realized early that anything I really wanted was worth working for.
People are gonna look up to me because I'm young, black, and female.
Roles for women need to be better written.
Hollywood has definitely grown, in embracing the inclusion of Latinos in the world, because, for some time, we didn't exist. We were not part of any stories.
It's still a political statement to stand on stage as a person of color and be excellent. We still need those images to combat the narrative we're often fed - as someone innately inferior or inexorably linked with lack.
Shows like 'Empire'... one of the most profound powerful things is that there's a gay male character who is loved. That character is going to save a lot of people's lives. Black families are confronting the idea that a gay black character can be human.
I didn't even think about hiding anything - I honestly went into it [with the idea that] I'm going to show myself off because no one of my size has ever been in this magazine [Sports Illustrated] and I need other women to know that they are just as beautiful.
