Mekhi Phifer Quotations

With my first son I cut his umbilical cord and everything, so I'm a hands-on father, to say the least.

When you're working and making money, that's all good, but there has to be something that provides a substance, I think.

I tend to play more true-to-life characters in real situations.

When break dancing was out, I break danced. When rapping was the thing, I freestyled rap on the street and battled and all that kind of stuff.

There's no question that I'm African-American. OK? I'm a black man. We're not going to escape that.

I've done 21 films in eight years, and I've said 'No' more times than I've done films.

I've dated interracially a lot. I grew up in Harlem, so I've dated Latins, Dominican, Guyanese, Cuban, black, white.

Actors look at life in a different way. When I meet people, I know that one day I may portray that person or someone like them. It may be a cop or a homeless guy. It helps you to pay more attention to people. Everyone I meet, I retain something from them, something from their personality. It helps me to portray realism in my work.

It's always a pleasure when you get to work with people that you actually really like.

Eating right has made the biggest difference in my body.

It's called 'Easier, Softer Way,' ... It's a comedy starring Danny Masterson, Ronnie Warner, John C. McGinley. I have a small part in it.

Once or twice a week, I try to do some kind of boxing. I'm hitting the bags and jumping rope - all that stuff.

I love working with Sally Field, and Steve Buscemi is one of the most giving, talented actors I've ever worked with.

I love kids, outings, camping, sports, Legoland, all the Daddy stuff. I love it. I wish I could just do that, but I have to work, too.

I'm a soccer dad at heart. I want five kids, and I want to get married. I want to coach Little League.

I'm an avid watcher of the Nat Geo channel, where I watch shows about how the planets are formed, and shows about moons, quasars, black holes.

I know a lot of people who are weak, who are in a perpetual cycle of poverty and being locked up. There are guys from my neighborhood who are in jail or who are dead. It does take a certain strength to know your environment and say, 'I can grow beyond it.'

I always try to bring a certain masculine presence to what I do. That is part of the dynamic.

I don't really like hospitals that much. People are sick; sometimes it can be depressing. There's people going through a lot of pain in there. It has that funny smell.

Working with great actors - being part of something of that magnitude and not knowing the business and what the business entailed or any of that. I was so wet behind the ears, I didn't know anything. It's, like, you're watching movies, and then here you are in front of those people and working with them. It was pretty interesting.

I like to make sure that I'm believable. If I don't believe me, then there's a lot of people that don't believe me, but if I can believe that I'm doing it, then I know the audience will, too.

A lot of times you'll hear horror stories about actors being incredibly selfish and only wanting themselves to shine, but for me, it's not about just one person. It's about the whole team. That's the way I look at acting. That's the way I look at everything I do.

I guess it's a personal preference. Me, personally, I like to be able to tell the stories that I want to tell and do the things that I want to do. It takes a little bit more work, but that's what the production side is.

Being producer you're still going to have to sell somebody who's going to give you the money on the idea and everything like that. But it does give you a little bit more control if you're thinking in that creative process; it gives you more control to tell the story you want to tell rather than sort of just reading a script that somebody else wrote and says, "Yes, please, you can hire me for this job." So it's a little bit more hands-on, a little bit more closer to the heart.

I have my own method [of acting]. I come from, I've interrogated people; I come from an undercover background, so it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

I can do comedy but it's a certain type. I'm not a physical comedy guy. I'm not Will Ferrell - there's just this crazy and get naked and run through the thing screaming. That's just not my style; my style is drama or - I'm not slapstick.

Even when I was on Curb Your Enthusiasm I wasn't this "over-the-top" crazy character. It was still kind of play it straight but it was funny because the situation was funny. That's kind of how I portrayed things and I like dramas; I like to be able to - because in dramas you can laugh and joke and still be serious, be real. I like the realism of them.

The networks are different so they have a different approach. Obviously, with The Shield - that was on FX so they had a little bit more leeway as far as the dialogue was concerned and even the content and what they showed the viewers, which is a great thing. But we will push it to the limit as far as FOX will let us go; that's for damn sure.

The first day, in particular, is always one of those weird days because you get ..., you're thrown into this new trailer - here's your wardrobe.

The beauty of when you watch good television or films is that, yes, you may have a multi-cultural cast but those roles could be anybody - they could be white, they could be black. To show the world that we have more in common than we have different with each other is to me the ultimate goal of all of that. It does help unite in people's mind the thought that people are the same. Yes, there's going to be cultural differences, but for the most part, we are all in the same gang as human beings.

I grew up in a rough environment. You want to be strong and have your presence felt out there. That attitude reflects how people see you.

My favorite song is Eminem's 'Rap God.' That joint is just incredible, It's six-and-a-half minutes of him just crushing the whole game. It's so different from what I hear if I listen to the radio.