As an actor I want to play as many different characters as possible. Throughout my career I’ve had the great opportunity to do just that and I love every second of it. Every new role is challenging and a learning experience. Some experiences have been less smooth than others, but overall there is never a dull moment and that’s what life is all about to me.

[About acting:] An actor brings something of themselves to a part, working with elements of his or her own life, and fashioning them into something different. I'm not Draco. Draco is not me. But the dividing line is not black and white. It's painted in shades of grey.

Because it's exactly this kind of role reversal that I'm interested in, and then it actually makes it a challenge for the viewer. Also, because most artists work in a completely different way.

I feel that in order to truly be an actor, you have to differentiate yourself and your roles.

I think it’s a real danger, as an actor, when you try to make some statement through your career about what the business should be doing or ultimately what your image should be or how you want to be perceived. I look at every project that comes along and say, “Is this something I can sink my teeth into and can do a good job on?” That’s really how I choose roles.

So the thing about me is, I’ve always considered myself to be a very versatile artist. From the very first EP, all five to six songs on are completely different and I’ve never wanted to box myself.

All my movies are my favourites. I am not sentimental so I appreciate everything I have done, whether good, bad or ugly. My roles are challenging and I am always looking for different ways to interpret a role even if it is familiar territory for me. It doesn’t matter if it’s something I am accustomed to doing every day. This is how I see it: Now, it’s not me, it’s me in someone else’s character and I want it to be believable.

I really believe in the art of storytelling and as an actor, I think it’s such a great opportunity to be able to do what we do because so many people are trying to do that and I’ve worked for so long to try to get interesting opportunities that I just wanna make sure I do the character justice. I guess you could call it method in many ways but for me, it’s just trying to commit to the character in the best way possible, whatever that entails, whether it’s giving yourself acne or diving into a very dark place.

I can only speak for myself, but as an actor i wasn’t like, “I’m going to challenge the way people see Latin people.” I was just happy to get roles. I tried to find new material in characters, but I wasn’t post-race about it or anything like that. I was just looking at it as just work. I wasn’t framing myself, so I wasn’t framing characters. Now I see the importance of playing [certain types of] characters. I’m not necessarily choosing characters that go against stereotypes, I’m choosing characters that you don’t even have time to question where they would fit in. Or what box they would fit into.

After 20 years‚ I’ve decided to give the Thandaza character a break in order for me to grow as an artist‚ venture out to explore new opportunities and discover what I can do as an actress and as a human being