When I was 20 years old, my mom flew me for my first Broadway audition for 'The Color Purple,' and I only found out about it because I knew that Fantasia was in it, and so I went online to ActorsEquity.com. I was not a part of the union, but I flew there for the audition, and the next week I made my Broadway debut!
I'm ridiculous in my oversharing; my mom and sister are very open but a little more judicious than me... and my father is a decidedly private person.
I've been a writer since I was a kid. I've been a writer since I was, you know, dictating stories into a tape deck and trying to get my mom to type them up - when I was really, really little.
When I came home after 'DWTS,' I had a couple of days, and I had actually given the Mirrorball to my mom. She loves to decorate the house, so I said, 'Here - make it pretty. Do what you want with it!
I remember 'The Yearling' was the first film I ever saw, and my mom told me I cried for about four or five days afterwards. I'd be going along during the day and suddenly start crying over what had happened to the little deer.
Being the only man in the household with my mom definitely helped me grow up fast.
During Holi, my mom prepares lovely puran polis, and everyone in my family makes an exception in their diet plan to include this delicious food item!
My dad was a golden gloves boxer in the Marine Corps, then a deputy sheriff. My mom worked as an office assistant.
My mom was from Germantown and was of German descent. She was a real force behind me and my dream. She was always my biggest fan, even when I was wrestling at an early age.
Anytime there was an award show, it was a ritual where me and my mom would sit around and watch with my friends. We would make desserts and buy chips and popcorn and see what our favorite performances of the night were.
The art of motherhood involves much silent, unobtrusive self-denial, an hourly devotion which finds no detail too minute.
My mom was a diabetic. Her sister was a diabetic, so I was already a candidate.
Cancer taught my family that my mom is much stronger than we ever thought. Faced with a devastating diagnosis, she just kept going and living - never complaining.
I'm extremely blessed to have the extraordinary mother that I have, and I don't mean Diana Ross, I mean the mother. My mom paved a road that didn't exist, as did Oprah.
I never really saw my mom as Diana Ross. My mom was my mom.
Well, my mom is single and we've both been single at the same time over the last ten years, so I really related to the bond between my character and Diane's.
A mother who is obsessing about being thin and dieting and exercising is not going to be a very good mother.
Before I was born, my mom and my dad, they used to rescue dogs, so at one point, they had 13 dogs. And they were all from different litters. It wasn't like they were bred. They were all from different people. And they were all different ages. When I grew up at my dad's house, I think we had seven at one point.
One of my mom's favorite movies growing up was 'Big' with Tom Hanks. I thought, 'Oh, OK, what if we do something like that but not like that. Something more modern, with a different perspective, and maybe with an all-black cast.'
I remember that my mom, my dad and I would play different roles in mock debates, where one of us would be the moderator, one of us would be my dad - frequently not my dad - and then one of us would play his opponent.
