“Being different gives the world color.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“Being different makes you beautiful.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“I can play a doctor, and I can play a thug.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“Boot camp was the first time I got a heavy dose of discipline. It was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“’Interview with a Vampire’ is my all-time favorite. I also loved ‘An American Werewolf in London.’”
― Nelsan Ellis
“At some point in my life, I wanted to be in a vampire movie.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“It’s hard to get an education when teachers spend 70 percent of their time trying to discipline students.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“Fiona Shaw is a goddess to me.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“With ‘True Blood,’ you don’t know what to expect. You don’t know how wild it’s gonna get.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“I love working with Alexander Skarsgard. He brings such gravity to a scene.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“But no one told me that when you’re in the military, they own you.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“I’d always dabbled in acting.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“I was quiet. If I really wanted to say something, I would. I just wasn’t interested in saying anything.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“When I moved to Chicago, I was coming from a school that didn’t have any arts in Alabama. I essentially came from a town where the arts didn’t exist and the desire for education didn’t exist and wasn’t valued.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“I think, in this country, anybody can do whatever they want to do as long as it’s not hurting anybody else or violating the laws of society.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“If you want to get married to a man, then get married to a man. If two women want to get married, they should get married. It’s not hurting me.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“The beautiful thing about this country is that I can be a Christian and feel free to do so. Or somebody cannot be a Christian and do whatever that entails. Or somebody can be a Christian and still be gay, and I support it.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“Let gay people get married.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“My mom’s side, they’re southern Baptist Christian.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“I empty myself out and fill myself with the character. I would play a devil worshipper, and I would fill myself up with whatever devil worshippers believe. Then, as myself, I empty that out and become Nelsan.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“There were not many black students at Juilliard, unfortunately. So when you get there, you become very good friends, in particular, with the other black students.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“My years at Thornridge probably changed the course of my life.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“I had no intention of being an actor.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“My idea of horses is from when I grew up on a farm. They were big, and they were dumb.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“Acting is the only thing that makes me happy.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“I was quiet, and I was artistic. I liked writing poetry, and that was very strange, so I was bullied a lot.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“I rejected being a lot of things that I grew up in, and yet I didn’t. I got all my tactics from where I grew up… I can talk about all the people in those environments more than I can talk about the teachers at Juilliard or anyone else.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“Domestic violence is an epidemic, and yet we don’t address it. Until it happens to celebrities.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“I’m not an emotional person; I keep it in, and I wouldn’t know how to get it out if it weren’t for acting and writing.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“The sci-fi fans in America… they are die-hard. They will follow you to the ends of the Earth. Once they attach themselves to a show and believe in the show and love the characters, they’re there forever, and they’re unshakeable.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“When you deal with Alan Ball, you’re dealing with a person who is a genius in terms of how art imitates life.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“I went from unknown to having no anonymity.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“I am a vampire/werewolf and sci-fi fanatic. God is so good! I get to play in a series that has all that!”
― Nelsan Ellis
“Anna Paquin is marvelous, and she brings so much experience to the table.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“Alan Ball, he’s good at challenging his actors, I’ll say that.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“I see a project, and I say I want to audition for it, and people let me audition for it. There’s a lot to be grateful for.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“I don’t look anything like my mother, except when I’m Lafayette. I look like my father.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“When I wanted to become a serious actor, this girl told me, ‘You should go to Juilliard.’ And I said, ‘Okay.’”
― Nelsan Ellis
“The ultimate part that I want to play in my life is Jimi Hendrix, so I guess I’m drawn to music even though I can’t sing or dance very well.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“When you act with phenomenal actors, it makes your job much easier because all you have to do is react.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“You have to be a tough gay person in the South.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“You go back to my town, it’s like going back to the 1960s… just not a great place to grow up.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“You have to learn to not hate who you have to live with.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“Everybody kept saying, ‘I just don’t know how to sell you.’ I’m odd. I don’t think you can put a finger on me.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“Although I can be a leading man, you wouldn’t look at me and go, ‘He’s a leading man.’”
― Nelsan Ellis
“Whenever you have a character in which one of his defining qualities is his sexuality, it’s always challenging, because you don’t want to bring in someone who’s going to play that in a phony way.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“There are homophobic people in my family. They’re deeply religious.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“I was raised by women.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“I can’t approach a character with judgment.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“The arts are suffering amongst public schools, but also, minority theater companies are struggling, and I firmly believe in freedom of expression through the arts.”
― Nelsan Ellis
“When you’re in a position that you can comfortably give, you need to pay it forward.”
― Nelsan Ellis
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