NAACP Image Award Nominees: 10 Inspiring Quotes From Interviews With BET

What the nominees told BET about their work.

Eddie Murphy getting interviewed on BET Celebs 2019.

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Eddie Murphy, 'Dolemite Is My Name,' Outstanding Motion Picture - "It’s rewarding as a producer more than as a comedian. It’s his story, not so much how funny he was. His story is why there’s this movie. Rudy is not Richard Pryor, Rudy is not Red Foxx, but Rudy believes in himself and I thought that was a great story. How you don’t have to be the baddest or the funniest or the best or the cutest or the hottest. The most important ingredient to whatever you want to do in life is believing in yourself."

Cynthia Erivo, ‘Harriet,'  Outstanding Actress In A Motion Picture - "Whenever I'm playing a scene with someone else, I listen and take that to heart. I try to make sure that I'm fully present at every moment on the set with someone or on the screen. That's the story. I want to make sure that whatever information I was getting, it was registering, so that you could feel what I was feeling.We also studied her face, looked at her face and asked, ‘How did this down-turned mouth happen?’ There was a sadness within her eyes, and I wanted to incorporate that with my own. To replace what I am with her.”

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Cynthia Erivo, ‘Harriet,'  Outstanding Actress In A Motion Picture - "Whenever I'm playing a scene with someone else, I listen and take that to heart. I try to make sure that I'm fully present at every moment on the set with someone or on the screen. That's the story. I want to make sure that whatever information I was getting, it was registering, so that you could feel what I was feeling.We also studied her face, looked at her face and asked, ‘How did this down-turned mouth happen?’ There was a sadness within her eyes, and I wanted to incorporate that with my own. To replace what I am with her.”

Photo By Photo Credit: Focus Features

Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx talking about their movie "Just Mercy" on BET 2020.

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Michael B. Jordan, 'Just Mercy,' Outstanding Actor In A Motion Picture - “We become numb and desensitized over time…we see this happening all the time. [But] we’ve got to keep that energy up… We can’t be reactive, we have start being organized and proactive about certain things and about this conversation. We should want to see this through until we get some real change.”

Tyler Perry, Entertainer Of The Year - “No matter what anybody says, I’ve learned to stay true to my voice, stay true to my audience, not chase people’s opinion. I know my audience and who I’m writing for, and staying on that track has brought me to this place. So that has been the most important thing I’ve learned. Being true to myself, being true to my voice and staying clear about who I’m writing for and what I’m doing.”

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Tyler Perry, Entertainer Of The Year - “No matter what anybody says, I’ve learned to stay true to my voice, stay true to my audience, not chase people’s opinion. I know my audience and who I’m writing for, and staying on that track has brought me to this place. So that has been the most important thing I’ve learned. Being true to myself, being true to my voice and staying clear about who I’m writing for and what I’m doing.”

Daniel Kaluuya, 'Queen and Slim,' Outstanding Actor In A Motion Picture - “If you’re in a context that’s passively oppressive, you have to do something or you get beat up mentally. That kind of survival, wanting to keep going, to figure stuff out and trying to have a life, I do empathize with that.”

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Daniel Kaluuya, 'Queen and Slim,' Outstanding Actor In A Motion Picture - “If you’re in a context that’s passively oppressive, you have to do something or you get beat up mentally. That kind of survival, wanting to keep going, to figure stuff out and trying to have a life, I do empathize with that.”

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Winston Duke, 'US,' Outstanding Actor In A Motion Picture - “Because the movie is about what legacy do we leave. And if your legacy could visit you at your door, with YOUR face, are you prepared to see it and deal with the repercussions? So I think Us is speaking to so many things in our society today.”

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Winston Duke, 'US,' Outstanding Actor In A Motion Picture - “Because the movie is about what legacy do we leave. And if your legacy could visit you at your door, with YOUR face, are you prepared to see it and deal with the repercussions? So I think Us is speaking to so many things in our society today.”

Alfre Woodard, 'Clemency,' Outstanding Actress In A Motion Picture - "We’ve found that not only do some correctional facility workers have PTSD rates similar to those deployed overseas in the military, but, if they’re married, they’re on their third marriage. But it was important for me to see. While people are waiting to decide whether they’re pro-death penalty or co death-penalty, look at the people that we say, "You do it! You do the dirty work." What does it do to their lives? That’s what we wanted to bring forward."

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Alfre Woodard, 'Clemency,' Outstanding Actress In A Motion Picture - "We’ve found that not only do some correctional facility workers have PTSD rates similar to those deployed overseas in the military, but, if they’re married, they’re on their third marriage. But it was important for me to see. While people are waiting to decide whether they’re pro-death penalty or co death-penalty, look at the people that we say, "You do it! You do the dirty work." What does it do to their lives? That’s what we wanted to bring forward."

Photo By Photo Credit: Credit Paul Sarkis/NEON Films

Sterling K. Brown, 'Waves,' Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Motion Picture - "I feel like we as Black men often feel as if we have to arm ourselves to go out into the world, there’s a protection, you can’t allow yourself to feel all this sh-t, because it can be overwhelming. But in the second half of the film, after we experience this massive tragedy, there has to be a reassessment that the way I was with my son didn’t yield the results that I was looking for. So maybe there is another way of being that’s better. And that there is a strength in vulnerability, and being able to share what you’re going through with your children that is appreciated, because they see you as a fully realized human being. And that may be even stronger than this armor that you’re attempting to put on."

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Sterling K. Brown, 'Waves,' Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Motion Picture - "I feel like we as Black men often feel as if we have to arm ourselves to go out into the world, there’s a protection, you can’t allow yourself to feel all this sh-t, because it can be overwhelming. But in the second half of the film, after we experience this massive tragedy, there has to be a reassessment that the way I was with my son didn’t yield the results that I was looking for. So maybe there is another way of being that’s better. And that there is a strength in vulnerability, and being able to share what you’re going through with your children that is appreciated, because they see you as a fully realized human being. And that may be even stronger than this armor that you’re attempting to put on."

Lupita Ny’ongo, 'Us,' Outstanding Actress In A Motion Picture - “The thing about being Black is that it’s not the only thing in the world. Race is a concept that is always in reaction to something else.  And in this story, the fact that the family is Black is not in question, it’s unremarkable, it’s normal. And I think that’s refreshing in and of itself. And the fact that you have a Black family at the center of a narrative in the horror genre, that’s he special thing about it. But it’s just a normal family going through a seriously abnormal situation that everyone can relate to beyond the color of their skin. And that’s really cool.”

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Lupita Ny’ongo, 'Us,' Outstanding Actress In A Motion Picture - “The thing about being Black is that it’s not the only thing in the world. Race is a concept that is always in reaction to something else.  And in this story, the fact that the family is Black is not in question, it’s unremarkable, it’s normal. And I think that’s refreshing in and of itself. And the fact that you have a Black family at the center of a narrative in the horror genre, that’s he special thing about it. But it’s just a normal family going through a seriously abnormal situation that everyone can relate to beyond the color of their skin. And that’s really cool.”

Photo By (Photo: Universal Studios)

Ava Duvernay, 'When They See Us' Outstanding Television Movie, Limited Series Or Dramatic - "It’s hard to read a script and get the emotion because it’s just words on a page. But for these men when they heard actors being them, just sitting around the table hearing the script performed it was deeply emotional to them.And that just continued when they visited the set and saw the boys wearing the clothes that they wore that night and when they saw the final film/show. In L.A. about two months ago, I sat behind them in a small screening room, just us, when they watched it. There were tears and embraces. It was a cathartic experience. My hope is that people come to know, respect and acknowledge what they went through and that that helps them in their own journey."

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Ava Duvernay, 'When They See Us' Outstanding Television Movie, Limited Series Or Dramatic - "It’s hard to read a script and get the emotion because it’s just words on a page. But for these men when they heard actors being them, just sitting around the table hearing the script performed it was deeply emotional to them.And that just continued when they visited the set and saw the boys wearing the clothes that they wore that night and when they saw the final film/show. In L.A. about two months ago, I sat behind them in a small screening room, just us, when they watched it. There were tears and embraces. It was a cathartic experience. My hope is that people come to know, respect and acknowledge what they went through and that that helps them in their own journey."

Photo By Photo Credit: Netflix