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.