You shouldn't feel unsafe walking to school. It's where you should feel safe. Our parents should feel their children are going to be taken care of, looked after.
When I entered normal school, it was hard for me to adjust sometimes. I was so unused to just sitting down in a classroom and copying off the board - simple things.
When I was in college, I lived in a mostly black, poor neighborhood. That's where I grew up, but I attended a mostly white upper-class school in conservative Mississippi. I was often very aware of how I presented myself.
I grew up producing hip-hop music, actually. I was producing for my friends, who were all rappers in upstate New York, where I'm from. But in the eighth grade, we had this songwriting contest in our school, and I got really excited about it and actually won. After that, I just kept making music forever.
I was lucky enough to go to an all-boys prep school in upstate New York that had a film program, so we had access to 16mm Bolex cameras, Nagra sound recorders, Arriflex cameras. We even had an Oxberry animation stand!
I grew up in a family in which no male upstream from me had ever finished high school, much less gone to college. But I was taught that even though there was nothing I could do about what was behind me, I could change everything about what was in front of me. My working poor parents told me that I could do better.
I graduated from high school in '62 and I didn't know any people who were gay. I'm sure there were people, but I didn't know any. For years and years, I guess, I was very uptight about being a gay actor. I thought it would make me less hirable.
My dream school was USC. So I was like, alright, I'm going to apply to USC, and If I don't get in - I'm dropping out of school, and I'm pursuing music. So I applied, and I got in. I was like alright, I'm at the number one communications school in the country, and that was my major.
I went to USC where there's a huge Greek system. The school is in a pretty seedy area, so the only social life is at these fraternities. I never joined one myself, but I had a lot of friends who were in frats and I would go to those parties. I had a healthy dose of being around frat life while I was in school.
I was a 2-year-old baby on something, but it's not like I had lines. But I actually had my first lines when I was 4. And then I finished school, and I went to USC for their BFA program in acting.
In high school, I worked at Abercrombie & Fitch, and once I graduated from business school at USC, I started a company with my partner and had a nine-to-seven job.
I went to school at the University of Utah, and they had outstanding facilities and coaches that helped me grow and mature as a person.
My dad and my brother were more keen on football, but I used to play canvas-ball cricket while at school in Ranchi, and we would have cricket coaching camps in the summer vacations. That's how I started.
'Nimona' was originally a vague idea I had when I was in high school, when I was just getting into shapeshifting characters. It was a straightforward superhero story at the time. Nimona was named Nightshade, and she had an eyepatch for some reason. There was nothing really special about it, though.
I drew as a child, they tell me. I can vaguely remember doing it. And then I drew again in the late years at high school.
I have a box of things from Becca, my high school girlfriend, and Vanessa; and each one of them was love. I have the notes, the valentines, 20 mixed tapes, all of it. It's important to keep that stuff.
I enjoy my relationship with straight men. It's very nurturing. It's very validating to hang out with straight guys and be accepted. So many of us, we were not accepted when we were younger by straight persons in high school.
I was just putting way too much pressure on myself. I was just trying to get that validation from my dad. It got so bad I remember my high school coach telling him not to show up to games.
Girls are going to school again in Swat Valley. And that is great.
I can tell you where I was when Kennedy was shot - which was in the common room at school. I heard about it on the old valve radio. At the time of Armstrong's landing, I was at university rehearsing a play.
