I knew I wanted to be an artist early on, but I decided to seriously pursue the profession when I auditioned for Juilliard. – Corey Hawkins
I got to pick the mind of a genius, and I realized why he was a genius. And I realized the man behind the veil or whatever you want to call it. Do you know what I mean? I got to see what makes Dr. Dre Dr. Dre, and I got to interpret that. It’s hard to put it into words, so the only thing I know how to do is put it on the screen. – Corey Hawkins
The only thing that I know how to do as an actor, as a trained actor, is you can’t villainize the character you’re playing. Whether it’s a fictional character or a real character. Because then you operate from that sort of negative point of view, and you can’t humanize him. – Corey Hawkins
My mother’s a police officer, so there was only so much trouble I could get myself into. But my father grew up on the other side. – Corey Hawkins
Heading out to L.A., doing this acting thing. You can’t rest on your laurels out there. You finish a film, you don’t know how it’s going to do. You’re talking about that next job, usually. – Corey Hawkins
I grew up singing, and I played on Broadway to thousands of people, you know what I mean? – Corey Hawkins
With ’24: Legacy,’ there are a lot of people who are super-excited about the show. But there are a lot of people who are very skeptical. – Corey Hawkins
You know how trends go with television. Next year, the networks might not be open to taking risks. – Corey Hawkins
I’m a very private guy, so it’s an adjustment for me, but a welcomed one, as long as the work remains the focus. – Corey Hawkins
I have members of my family who are in the military. I have friends who are in the military. Classmates who served in the military. – Corey Hawkins
Sometimes you just need to raise your voice. And sometimes a little anger is necessary, to be honest. – Corey Hawkins
You read things, and they come to you, and if they speak to you at the moment and there’s a voice in you that says, ‘I don’t know, that’s risky,’ or ‘That’s challenging,’ then do it. Run at it and tackle it. And if it’s bad, it’s bad. You’re gonna get over it. – Corey Hawkins
The challenge is making sure that every single moment is honest, no matter what. It’s doing Eric Carter justice. Not trying to fill Jack Bauer’s shoes. Not trying to step into Kiefer’s legacy. – Corey Hawkins
When it comes to the awards and everything, and the press, the publicity, this is all icing on the cake to me. – Corey Hawkins
While I was filming ‘Kong’ – and I don’t play a very capable Army Ranger in ‘Kong’; I play a completely different character – but we had a lot of Army Rangers there, former Army Rangers, and Navy SEALs, who were working on the movie with us for the other characters, for the Army guys in the movie. – Corey Hawkins
If you feel your rights are being abused by the authorities, and you don’t say something, sometimes the cops don’t know how far to take it. They have a hard job, but at the same time, I think it’s just about educating yourself. – Corey Hawkins
On ’24,’ you don’t have time to emote and deal with stuff, because stuff just keeps happening. Every other minute, there’s something crazy that’s happening that’s threatening this country. – Corey Hawkins
What everyone loved about ’24’ is still there – the clock, the tick, the lean-in factor, the pacing. – Corey Hawkins
I remember seeing the first episode of ’24’ when I was 13, and to be that face for a 13-year-old and open up that possibility, it shows you the world isn’t on fire. There’s possibility there. – Corey Hawkins
When somebody says, ‘Do you want to play Dr. Dre in a movie?’ I mean, how do you respond to that? My initial response was ‘no’ because I don’t think I can do it ,and I don’t want to be the one to mess it up! – Corey Hawkins
It’s always weird when it comes to awards and awards season because how can you say that this performance is better than this performance? Art is so subjective. – Corey Hawkins
