I've been very lucky; God has done amazing things for me.
I think when you work really hard and you help others, God helps you get what you want.
With each dream accomplished, bigger ones are put in their place.
I try to keep in mind that it's a long journey. It's not a race. It's about staying focused, continuing to do good work, make my family and community proud; that's all I really want to do... and pay my bills.
Every morning, my dad would have me looking in the mirror and repeat, 'Today is going to be a great day; I can, and I will.'
Being half Jewish, we grew up with Christmas trees but had Jewish ornaments.
I've specifically decided to say no to projects that weren't advancing Latinos, that weren't showing us in a positive light, roles that were gratuitous and spreading untruths.
Being an actress wasn't realistic. I knew that I was going to have to do it in a way that would speak to my parents. So I went to NYU Tisch School of the Arts for theater, and I studied at the conservatory.
I do not devalue the role of a maid or nanny, or the stereotypical roles that some members of our family have actually done to feed our families in real life.
'Filly Brown' gave me the wings to fly, but red carpets are still very uncomfortable.
I love relatable stories.
I went to college at NYU for acting, since acting was my dream from very young. I did a lot of hip-hop courses while I was there. I helped co-write a hip-hop production for the main stage of NYU, but I never touched rap.
I felt very vulnerable after 'Sleeping with the Fishes'; I gained weight for the role. I felt a bit out of my skin in the movie, and it was hard to watch.
I'm not messing with skiing. You can't get this Puerto Rican on the slope. Uh-uh.
I grew up dancing salsa - you know, a traditional Puerto Rican dance.
What makes characters real are details, and if you're crafting a person from scratch, you're probably not going to pay as much attention to a question like, 'Does this person bite their nails?'
I love telling stories that allow people to be less afraid to tell theirs.
I started salsa dancing with a few different companies and started touring the country. It was fantastic, but I realized that I really wanted to talk every time we were performing. That's a problem because when you're dancing, if you stop to talk, that's not really cool to the other dancers.
I started performing very young as a salsa dancer, and every time I was on that stage dancing, all I knew was that I wanted to speak. I wanted the music to stop, and I wanted to speak.
I've learned a lot about what kind of actor I want or do not want to be while being on set. I sit back and observe how other actors treat the totem pole of set politics.
