Omar Benson Miller

My father is from Mississippi, and I heard stories of racial injustice my whole life.

People think that, somehow, size makes you uncoordinated or incompetent. There is a lot of size discrimination out there, and I see the difference in the way people treated me when I was 360 pounds versus how they treat me when I'm 290 - from the industry to day-to-day people on the street.

'8 Mile' is so revered, it's like, everywhere I go, somebody's talking about it.

I played sports. The acting thing was just a direct blessing from the Lord, because I lost my discipline to play sports, and I had this really cool professor grab me and kind of take me under his wing, and the ball just started rolling. Another professor introduced me to my first agent, and the next thing you know, I got to start doing films.

After '8 Mile' came out and blew up, the ball has been rolling ever since.

Normally, I try to stay away from playing security guard-type characters, the stereotypical, big man fare. And I've been pretty blessed, man, and successful at getting out of the box.

Before I left to go to college, I was living in Orange County, Anaheim Hills. And prior to that, I was in Long Beach.

I'm not a fan of travel and food shows in general, because I think, a lot of the time, I feel like they're talking down to you.

I read the novel 'Miracle at St. Anna' when it was first released, and I loved it.

As a 6-foot, 6-inch, 300-pound black man, I've done everything I can to stay out of that box that Hollywood tries to put me in. I've been able to play a variety of roles, like the character of Vern in 'Shall We Dance?' with Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez to the character of Neal in 'Things We Lost in the Fire.' I've been blessed.

I played basketball and baseball up until college, yea. Then I lost my discipline and started chasing girls and whatnot.

The best party I've ever attended in my life was courtesy of Marshall Mathers. There were basically six guys and 70 girls there.

Some dudes who are key grips honestly look like they could play D-Line for the Raiders.

I have a very round mound of rebound thing going on. I was a surprisingly good shooter, too. If I could have any job in sports, though, I'd want to be playing first base for the Yankees.