Quotes from Zazie Beetz

When the Berlin Wall came down, my dad left to visit the U.S. He met my mom at this summer camp where they were both working, so I grew up between Washington Heights and Germany speaking two languages.

I used to work at Cafe Mogador in the East Village. I love Mogador, but I feel like working almost anywhere will kind of ruin it for you. There was a lot of panicking while being a waitress there. I don't like to think about that. But I love the food.

I've begun feeling that my responsibility is to the Earth. Our generation's war is climate change, so I've really been modifying how I eat and what I eat.

At home in my room, I'm funny, but if I'm commissioned to be that, I don't feel very funny.

One day, I'd like to tackle a biopic. I grew up very influenced by Josephine Baker, Billie Holiday, and Nina Simone.

Despite my career, so much of my life has been dictated by what I'm afraid of: fear that I am not talented. Fear that people will finally realize that I am a boring individual who doesn't have many ambitions beyond starting a family 'at a good time' in life.

Some people feel like women should dress in a way that doesn't promote attention-seeking. But this is just my body. My body in itself isn't only sexual.

I feel like I pull inspiration, in general, from how I feel on a day.

It is so frustrating to feel in danger. People have followed me around at 2 in the morning and have literally said, 'Don't make me follow you. You're not responding to me.' It's incredibly degrading.

For me, fear manifests itself in snoozing and inactivity. I just become so sleepy, any time of day, when something needs to be done. I sometimes go days without responding to texts or reading books or being able to process much of anything beyond the sun slowly creeping through my living room windows.

Bad bread is the one thing I refuse. I need good bread.

I identify with my womanhood before anything else because that's what I deal with when I am alone.

Growing up, my aunts would always put in hair ties and bows and all kinds of stuff, and I always hated it.

I was an only child until I was 15, so I was able to reap the benefit of that.

I used to cry on planes. I don't anymore. It probably took almost a hundred agonizing flights to get there. Now, when I take off, a smile quivers on the corner of my lips.

I like representing different kinds of black people - showing they exist.

It's fascinating working with young children. You have to improvise around them, and they're moving around and doing stuff, and you have to be real with them.

I actually didn't think I was going to do TV because I don't really watch TV. I'm a little bit pretentious, and I do these little indie movies, so I envisioned that more as the path for myself.

Agriculture is one of the biggest causes of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Cars? Planes? Trains? Nope. Cow farts.

Walking in the street, particularly in a city like New York, every single day, I am reminded of how objectified women can be. Being catcalled every day, multiple times a day, all the time... it just constantly happens.

I always thought my alternative life, if I wasn't acting, would be to become a midwife. I love women. I want to help them exist.

What I crave, and what I want to see on television, is when you see a minority character, not to have it being about them being black or Asian or Latino. If you watch 'Friends,' for example, it's not about a group of people being white. It's about a group of people being friends, you know? You should just let the characters exist.

I wish I was a morning person.

I love babies. I also have this very deep desire to become a mother. I always thought that motherhood was my highest calling.