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	Being a part of '12 Years a Slave' has been one of the most profound experiences of my life.   
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	I can speak of actors that I love. I love Cate Blanchett, Viola Davis, her tenacity. I love Charlize Theron. She's so surprising and so exhilarating, the kinds of projects she takes on. Marion Cotillard as well.   
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	What's becoming very obvious to me is that fashion is art.   
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	I loved make-believe. I was the child in the cupboard playing with my Barbies.   
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	I'm Mexican and Kenyan at the same time. I've seen the quarrels over my nationality, but I'm Kenyan and Mexican at the same time. So again, I am Mexican-Kenyan, and I am fascinated by carne asada tacos.   
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	The Hollywood Film Awards were really stressful. It was the biggest press line I'd ever seen.   
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	I didn't love my hair when I was a child. It was lighter than my skin, which made me not love it so much. I was really kind of envious of girls with thicker, longer, more lush hair.   
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	Being considered a fashion star is wonderful. It's definitely a bonus thing.   
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	The muscles you flex in theater are muscles that you really need. I must always find a way to get back there. It's irreplaceable.   
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	The beauty standards had nothing to do with me in Mexico. It was such a bizarre, dire time for my hair. I was living in a small town where there was not any semblance of an African community. I'd have to take the bus to Mexico City to find a woman who could braid my hair. That was two and a half hours away.   
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	I'm interested in generating work for myself. I have trouble with this waiting-for-the-phone-to-ring lifestyle, especially after drama school, which was so creatively fulfilling.   
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	I definitely love fantasy and would want to be in a fantasy project.   
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	I thrive on structure. I find my freedom in structure.   
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	As actors, you become an expert at starting over.   
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	Our business is complicated because intimacy is part and parcel of our profession; as actors, we are paid to do very intimate things in public. That's why someone can have the audacity to invite you to their home or hotel, and you show up.   
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	My father was a professor of political science and also a young politician fighting for democracy in Kenya, and when things got ugly, he went into political exile in Mexico.   
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	I haven't always been gluten-free.   
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	I always love to learn new things. That's the reason I like being an actor.   
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	All throughout filming '12 Years a Slave,' there was a focus like no other. Everyone took ownership of this film and gave their all.   
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	My mother talked about the stories I used to spin as a child of three, before I started school. I would tell this story about what school I went to and what uniform I wore and who I talked to at lunchtime and what I ate, and my mother was like, 'This girl does not even go to school.'   
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	Human beings have an instinct for freedom.   
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	Slavery is something that is all too often swept under the carpet.   
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	In the madness, you have to find calm.   
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	I have a very ostrich mentality. I feel like I have my head in the sand so no one can see me.   
