No matter what role I play, I have a certain image to maintain. I believe I'm a role model and I take my parts accordingly.
Starting my carrer, I had three rules. I called a press conference and said: you can't kill me in a movie; I win all my fights in a movie; I get the girl at the end of the movie if I want her. They weren't about to hear that, and I knew that I would have to do that myself, but I set the public up and set the press up letting them know what I was going to do: continuing to sell the brand and image that I had.
It's the character identification people remember, it's not so much remembering the movie; they just know that I'm a badass. I was a badass in Chicago before the movies ever came out. I was a badass on the football field - that's why they call me "the Hammer." I don't lean back on one particular picture, because I've done so many of them. But they all have the same common thing: I'm a badass.
We [black actors] are more respected in Europe, because in Europe, I'm not a black actor - I'm an action star. In America, I'm a black actor.
