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" I started shooting 'The Defenders' two days after I wrapped' Friday Night Lights.' I was doing research for 'The Defenders' throughout - interviewing lawyers and sitting in courtrooms just to watch - but there's something fun about throwing yourself in the water and learning by doing. "

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" I'm told I'm a statistic. I'm told that my young black sisters are disease-ridden... but we are greater than what society tells us we are. "

Jurnee Smollett-Bell

Than

Society

" I have a complex heritage: my mom is African American, and my dad is Jewish. Both were activists, and they met during the movement in the '70s. "

" You learn a lot about yourself just by writing it down. "

" There's something about Jason Katims' writing that just feels like home to me. He gives you so much liberty to play, which you don't find on most TV shows. You just don't. "

" I love to get in the library and just spend days researching characters. "

" Marian Wright Edelman is a mentor and hero of mine. "

" We got spoiled with 'Friday Night Lights.' Not every show is like that, and on other shows, if you try to bring that same truth or that same approach, the system of television doesn't always allow for that level of collaboration, which is unfortunate because the work would be richer. "

" I would be ignorant to say colorism doesn't exist; it's gross and disgusting. "

" I want to tell human stories not solely based on race. There are so many great actresses and actors that are out there, and I just want to see them do good work. "

" The real trendsetters are the ones who rebel. Those are the ones who everyone in fashion eventually follows. "

" That's something I've struggled with my entire life - people underestimating me. "

Jurnee Smollett-Bell

Entire

Something

" My mom is from New Orleans. And all of my maternal relatives were there during Katrina. We couldn't even find my uncle for four months. We literally didn't know where he was. I had been there just four days before the storm hit. "

" There's this notion, kind of like unspoken, that you can't live your dreams and be a mom. You can't have a career and be a mom. There's still that preconceived notion, and I reject that. "

" It's not very exciting to go to work to just have your character's identity being defined by her relationship with her male counterparts. "

" The AIDS epidemic began before I was born - I've never known a world without it. And yet, despite its omnipresence in our lives, there remains a pervasive silence around AIDS among young people, particularly young women. "

" With film, there's a consistency to it, but what I like about the TV shows that I've been fortunate to do, like 'Friday Night Lights' and 'True Blood,' is that it feels like you're doing a film. "

" I don't know if I would be doing what I do without 'Eve's Bayou,' and I don't know if I would have the career that I have without working on 'Eve's Bayou.' The love for what I do, I found it in that project. "

" It is a beautiful thing to work on your relationship. "

" How often do you see young actors playing scholars? Or striving to be intellectuals, you know? It's not that often. "

" Marriage is a work in progress, but it's beautiful. "

" Injustice is either very blatant - you walk down the street and someone calls you a name; you don't get a job because of your gender or your skin color or your sexual preference - but injustice is also very subliminal. "

" Oftentimes, a history book in school will talk about the Underground Railroad as if it's one sentence. But thousands of people decided to run, and they single-handedly changed the trajectory of our nation. By running to the North, they put a face to slavery, which recruited a lot of abolitionists. "

" When I was 12 years old, I got involved with an organization called Artists for a New South Africa. One of its missions is to help with HIV/AIDS awareness. "

" I'm very opinionated and passionate when it comes to my characters. "

" 'Full House' was the first time I had ever been in front of a live audience. I said a line I had rehearsed with my mom, and they laughed. It was wild. To have that energy of the live audience was like, Whaaat? Feeding off that live audience was, to a 4 or 5 year old, a high. "

" There's a lot of progress happening in TV. You have amazing shows like 'How to Get Away With Murder.' You have people like Shonda Rhimes, Lee Daniels with 'Empire,' and Jason Katims with 'Friday Night Lights' and 'Parenthood.' You have people behind the scenes writing complex women. "

" I read so many scripts, and it's not really exciting to just be the girlfriend. "

" We never get fashion shows in L.A.! Ever! "

" There's something about driving through Texas, and it's hot, your skin is sticking to you. The environment affects your attitude and your swagger. "

" My mom bought me an 'Anne of Green Gables' journal. And I just remember thinking it was so cool, and I could write anything in it. "

Jurnee Smollett-Bell

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