“One of my mom's favorite movies growing up was 'Big' with Tom Hanks. I...” — Marsai Martin Quote

One of my mom's favorite movies growing up was 'Big' with Tom Hanks. I thought, 'Oh, OK, what if we do something like that but not like that. Something more modern, with a different perspective, and maybe with an all-black cast.'

I feel like fame can get into people's head, and you always hear that child actors are doing this, or parents are making their kids do that. I feel like, since we're kids, we have an imagination where we can do whatever we want at any time and if that it is their passion, they will tell you.

My parents always told me I could do anything, so I never had limits on what I could or couldn't do.

I'm all about showing up for my friends, especially when they need me the most.

Mommy smoked but she didn't want us to. She saw smoke coming out of the barn one time, so we got whipped.

When I was seven my parents divorced. My father went to Dallas. My mom fled to the shelter of my grandparents in a strange central Ohio town of 22,000, Wooster. When it looked like I was growing up to be a wimp I was forced to live with my father, which I did not want to do.

Obviously I was well aware that I had what people consider a privileged upbringing. My mom was never a bake-cookies sort of mom. I really had no reins whatsoever.

The mother-child relationship is paradoxical and, in a sense, tragic. It requires the most intense love on the mother's side, yet this very love must help the child grow away from the mother, and to become fully independent.