“The idea of a new hero for a new day sang to me.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I think, in our darkest moments, you have to find the humor, and you have to find the lightness.”
― Corey Hawkins
“Growing up, we never got to see a hero who didn’t have superpowers who looked like us, that you could kind of look to and say, ‘I could be that guy one day. I could be a patriot. I could be a soldier. I could work in the government and be a hero.’”
― Corey Hawkins
“I had my foot in both worlds. I knew what I didn’t want, and so I had to make a choice, just like N.W.A. made choices.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I sort of have to have a positive outlook.”
― Corey Hawkins
“The challenge is making sure that every single moment is honest, no matter what. It’s doing Eric Carter justice. Not trying to fill Jack Bauer’s shoes. Not trying to step into Kiefer’s legacy.”
― Corey Hawkins
“The tension between the Capulets and the Montagues is like a gang rivalry, and that has everything to do with Compton.”
― Corey Hawkins
“In television, to be a hero and look like I look, that really stuck with me.”
― Corey Hawkins
“If the challenge wasn’t there, there’s no reason to say ‘yes’ to the role.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I didn’t grow up seeing faces of patriots, emotional and raw and gritty, who looked like me.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I remember seeing the first episode of ’24’ when I was 13, and to be that face for a 13-year-old and open up that possibility, it shows you the world isn’t on fire. There’s possibility there.”
― Corey Hawkins
“What everyone loved about ’24’ is still there – the clock, the tick, the lean-in factor, the pacing.”
― Corey Hawkins
“Sometimes, as actors, we feel like we want to hold on and control where a character goes.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I have members of my family who are in the military. I have friends who are in the military. Classmates who served in the military.”
― Corey Hawkins
“In 2001, terrorism was fought in a completely different way.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I knew I wanted to be an artist early on, but I decided to seriously pursue the profession when I auditioned for Juilliard.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I’m a very private guy, so it’s an adjustment for me, but a welcomed one, as long as the work remains the focus.”
― Corey Hawkins
“When somebody says, ‘Do you want to play Dr. Dre in a movie?’ I mean, how do you respond to that? My initial response was ‘no’ because I don’t think I can do it ,and I don’t want to be the one to mess it up!”
― Corey Hawkins
“The rules of engagement are totally different when you’re on the homefront.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I like being the underdog.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I like doing things that people wouldn’t necessarily think I can do.”
― Corey Hawkins
“We are a diverse people, man.”
― Corey Hawkins
“On ’24,’ you don’t have time to emote and deal with stuff, because stuff just keeps happening. Every other minute, there’s something crazy that’s happening that’s threatening this country.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I remember ‘The Cosby Show,’ but that was something completely different. Comedy. There was a lightness to it and a sort of unrealistic perfection.”
― Corey Hawkins
“You know how trends go with television. Next year, the networks might not be open to taking risks.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I have the most utmost respect for the men and women overseas, and I only played a soldier on television. Again, I can only imagine the sacrifices that they make every single day.”
― Corey Hawkins
“It can’t be all serious at all times.”
― Corey Hawkins
“The only pressure, as an actor, is to step into Eric Carter’s shoes and make him as fully and as complex and as flawed and as human as I could.”
― Corey Hawkins
“Sometimes you just need to raise your voice. And sometimes a little anger is necessary, to be honest.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I’m tired of seeing people dying every day; I’m tired of seeing people go to jail for nothing.”
― Corey Hawkins
“To be honest, sometimes you have to know your rights.”
― Corey Hawkins
“If you feel your rights are being abused by the authorities, and you don’t say something, sometimes the cops don’t know how far to take it. They have a hard job, but at the same time, I think it’s just about educating yourself.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I know that people get cast based on how they look in Hollywood.”
― Corey Hawkins
“We work so hard on our craft, and once we get out of Duke Ellington, there are not going to be people looking for technique. I worry about that a lot.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I have family that are vets of the military. My grandfather served as well.”
― Corey Hawkins
“While I was filming ‘Kong’ – and I don’t play a very capable Army Ranger in ‘Kong’; I play a completely different character – but we had a lot of Army Rangers there, former Army Rangers, and Navy SEALs, who were working on the movie with us for the other characters, for the Army guys in the movie.”
― Corey Hawkins
“If people don’t connect to Eric Carter’s struggles, I’m sure they’ll find a character in this series to connect to. That’s ultimately what it’s about for me.”
― Corey Hawkins
“Heading out to L.A., doing this acting thing. You can’t rest on your laurels out there. You finish a film, you don’t know how it’s going to do. You’re talking about that next job, usually.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I’m having way too much fun on ‘The Walking Dead.’”
― Corey Hawkins
“When it comes to the awards and everything, and the press, the publicity, this is all icing on the cake to me.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I prefer to do in-person interviews, but it’s all a part of the job, and I love talking about these movies so much.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I live in New York.”
― Corey Hawkins
“With ’24: Legacy,’ there are a lot of people who are super-excited about the show. But there are a lot of people who are very skeptical.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I’m so OCD about prep work and learning lines and stuff.”
― Corey Hawkins
“You read things, and they come to you, and if they speak to you at the moment and there’s a voice in you that says, ‘I don’t know, that’s risky,’ or ‘That’s challenging,’ then do it. Run at it and tackle it. And if it’s bad, it’s bad. You’re gonna get over it.”
― Corey Hawkins
“There’s no wrong choice because, whatever you choose, that’s meant for you.”
― Corey Hawkins
“The only thing that I know how to do as an actor, as a trained actor, is you can’t villainize the character you’re playing. Whether it’s a fictional character or a real character. Because then you operate from that sort of negative point of view, and you can’t humanize him.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I grew up singing, and I played on Broadway to thousands of people, you know what I mean?”
― Corey Hawkins
“It’s always weird when it comes to awards and awards season because how can you say that this performance is better than this performance? Art is so subjective.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I got to pick the mind of a genius, and I realized why he was a genius. And I realized the man behind the veil or whatever you want to call it. Do you know what I mean? I got to see what makes Dr. Dre Dr. Dre, and I got to interpret that. It’s hard to put it into words, so the only thing I know how to do is put it on the screen.”
― Corey Hawkins
“It’s also crazy how Shakespeare has that cadence, and it’s about locking into the jazz of the language, just like locking into the rhythm in N.W.A’s lyrics.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I grew up in D.C.”
― Corey Hawkins
“My mother’s a police officer, so there was only so much trouble I could get myself into. But my father grew up on the other side.”
― Corey Hawkins
“There’s good cops and bad cops, and the good cops have to hold the bad cops accountable. We have to hold the bad cops accountable, too.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I like to surprise myself. I like to surprise my fans, too.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I feel immensely blessed – not just that I’m working, but that I’m working on projects that I really care about and like. I’ve always been that way.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I like being a chameleon and doing things that are just so different that people will be like, ‘Oh, that’s him?’”
― Corey Hawkins
“I’ll just put it this way: I’ve struggled enough as a working actor – and, most of the times, a not working actor – to know that anytime you are working is a blessing.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I’m the guy coming from Juilliard.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I’m not going to lie to you: I’d prefer not to go to the gym and not to run.”
― Corey Hawkins
“Even before I was working off-Broadway, there were lots of different TV shows that I would actually say ‘no’ to, and my agents would be like, ‘Are you crazy?’ but they stuck with me because they know the kind of things that excite me.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I want longevity in this career.”
― Corey Hawkins
“I know the struggle – trust me. I know how hard it is for us to say ‘no’ to a lot of things that get offered.”
― Corey Hawkins
“Yes, I do feel a deep responsibility every time, every character, everything that I do.”
― Corey Hawkins
“So you want to take the risk, and you want to step out there; you do it because that’s what we have to do as actors. And sometimes in TV, it becomes big, and it becomes about the entertainment, but also, we have to focus in on the work.”
― Corey Hawkins
“Eric Carter is a more raw, more emotional protagonist. He’s a bit of an Everyman.”
― Corey Hawkins
“Sometimes ’24’ can seem a little grand. Sometimes these things can seem a little outlandish.”
― Corey Hawkins
“Nothing’s out of the realm. I think ’24’ has always keyed into that.”
― Corey Hawkins
“The thing with ’24’ is that because it moves so much, it’s a challenge, and sometimes things get revealed about these characters as you go.”
― Corey Hawkins
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