I’ve always felt misunderstood. Growing up, it’s been my word against the teachers’ or my parents’ word, and nobody would ever listen to me.
When I was growing up, we never had much money. My parents were divorced young, but I was always surrounded by loving individuals. They couldn’t give us riches, but they gave us their stories, their hearts, and their time.
I didn’t see a ton of movies growing up.
These things have a life of there own and never existed when I was growing up certainly worrying when one would get made. It’s kind of amazing how that one movie kept living through all these years.
I think probably one of the important things that happened to me was growing up in Idaho in the mountains, in the woods, and having a very strong presence of the wilderness around me. That never felt like emptiness. It always felt like presence.
Growing up, I wouldn’t say I was poor. But my parents, although we lived in a nice, middle-class home, they had their struggles.
Growing up in colonial Virginia, if you know anything about that part of the country, there was a number of tensions there. Because of that, you heard the family members talk about Dr. King and many others who were not just speaking out, but sacrificing a ton so that our world, our country could be a better place.
It doesn’t bother me or Curtis being questioned about our sexuality and it probably happens more because we’re dancers. That stereotype is disappearing, but people always made ignorant, short-sighted comments when we were growing up.
When I was growing up, my white friends would call me: ‘Hey, Chief!’ Even when I go to work now, people call me ‘Chief.’
There are so many role models who I watched and idolised growing up, mainly guys with a similar athletic style to myself. I loved Dynamite Kid, Eddie Guerrero, and Rey Mysterio, as well as Japanese juniors like Jushin Liger, Ultimo Dragon, and Tiger Mask.
‘Slumdog’ was my first movie, and I had never been to India before – I was just a teenager in the U.K. with my headphones and my Nike shoes. What did I know about growing up in a slum?
TV was my life, growing up. I ran home from school to watch television, and even did my homework with the TV on – my mom had a rule that as long as my grades didn’t fall, I was allowed to. So it was my dream to work in television.
I surrounded myself with women when I was growing up because I had this horrible psycho father. Now I’m trying to really appreciate and like men more.
Growing up in Jamaica, the Pentecostal church wasn’t that fiery thing you might think. It was very British, very proper. Hymns. No dancing. Very quiet. Very fundamental.
Growing up an only child with a single parent is probably why I’m an actor.
One of the great privileges of my life was growing up in a house without books.
We don’t know: some little black boy or girl growing up in the inner city might grow up and cure cancer for all of us – if we let them do it.
It’s been said that, while growing up, I ate meals with my skates on. It’s true.
For me, fashion is one of the biggest changes. I never got to wear Chanel or anything like that, growing up, or really experience fashion the way I get to now.
Growing up, I didn’t have many comics, but I grew to love these characters through their film and television universes. I’ve been geeking out about these superheroes ever since I could tie a towel around my neck like a cape and jump off my grandmother’s porch.
Growing up where I’m from, some people are afraid of cops. They don’t really like cops. And what a lot of people don’t realize is, they’re really not the bad guys. They’re really on our side, they’re really trying to help us out. And sometimes, we don’t understand that.
I think some of my best theatre training has been in the Marine Corps. Not only meeting a bunch of characters, but growing up. You’re in really adult situations at a young age, as far as being in charge of people.
Growing up in London, with a hippie mom, I don’t know that I’m most people’s definition of what a black person is. I’m mixed, yes, but in the world I’m defined as black before I’m defined white. I’ve never been called white.
I loved ‘Beakman’s World’ growing up. As much as I loved ‘Bill Nye,’ I always preferred ‘Beakman’s World’ because I thought it was funnier.
My parents wanted to name me Karim Hill. My aunt always liked the name Dule, from this actor Keir Dullea, who was in ‘2001: Space Odyssey.’ That’s how I got the name Karim Dule Hill. Growing up, I never liked the name Karim because people would ask me, ‘Could you dunk like Kareem Abdul Jabbar?’
Growing up I was a Cleveland Browns fan and my mood would change based on how they were playing. If they were losing I wasn’t as happy, I wasn’t as excited, I was a little sad.
For any child growing up, anything is possible. We were poor growing up and you had to work hard and make it happen for yourself.
Growing up, I had an internal struggle with my body because I was really chubby. My sisters were younger, and they were all skinny and all cute. As a teen, I definitely had, like, an extra 30 pounds of weight.
One of the first major programming projects that I worked on when I was growing up in Ireland, back just coding by myself, was a programming language. Then I spent a bunch of time working on a new web framer. Just back-end things to make it easier to go in and build things on top of, do other development.
What is the deepest passion for me and for us is the historic investment in the middle class and in – as I say often because I was that guy growing up – the dreams of those who look up who want to get into the middle class. That I feel the strongest about.
Our kids are growing up with more privilege than we had; that’s true for most of my friends in L.A. I don’t know any actor who grew up with any particular privilege, so everyone wrestles with this. And I think, a lot of times, it’s about being patient with your kids.
For me, growing up, I’d always been a part of team sports, except for when I was boxing.
I’m not gay, but I don’t think you have to be gay to have a gay hero. Growing up, Alan Turing was certainly mine. I’m also not the greatest mathematician of my generation. We have lots of biographical differences, but nonetheless, I always identified with him so much.
It was already hard enough growing up in the Philippines but imagine being blind, that’s 10 times harder.
Growing up, I dreamt of being economically independent because I always believed women should be so.
Family is very important. Me and my brothers were very close when I was growing up. We did a lot of things together to survive. If you have family behind you, the sky’s the limit.
Queen is my all-time favorite band in history. I was an obsessive growing up after I discovered them at 10 at summer camp.
I had a Super Grover doll growing up. Super Grover was very clumsy, he wasn’t very good-looking. But in his own way he’d always save the day.
I never listened to country music growing up.
When I first heard ‘Pearly Gates’ by Mobb Deep and 50 Cent growing up, the rapper Prodigy had a line about wanting to beat Jesus up. I wasn’t religious, but I’d never been introduced to something like that. I was scared and mad, but then I asked why I felt like that.
When I was growing up, we had cats, dogs, guinea pigs, rabbits, goats, chickens – a whole menagerie.
Growing up in Texas and Oklahoma, Ben Johnson was more famous than John Wayne to some of us. I knew him. I worked with him on a low budget film years ago, and we’d sit around at night while waiting for a shot.
It’s been very funny to try to act like an adult. Even getting dressed. Every day, I’m like, ‘Should I wear a blazer and walk around with an umbrella? Do I carry a briefcase?’ Because I’m trying to be some image of the adults I saw on TV growing up.
My dad’s French, and I spent my summers in France growing up. So I speak French fluently, and obviously, I speak English because I was raised in New York, and I grew up here.
We had two rules growing up in my house: If you’re going to take a shower, do it with whomever you’re dating so you don’t waste water; and if you buy one for yourself, buy six, because everybody’s going to want one.
This business of fame – when people ask me what it was like growing up in this famous family, I say, ‘When you take it seriously you’re in a lot of trouble.’
Growing up in Canada, most kids from Canada dream of playing in the NHL, and they also hope one day to be on a Stanley Cup team. That was a big goal.
I will never forget when we performed at the Tokyo Dome. Growing up, I was told that only A-list famous musicians are invited to perform at that venue.
Growing up in America, I experienced two puberties. The first opened me up to the possibilities of adulthood. The second reinforced that for someone like me – an immigrant, a minority, an Asian-American – there were limits.
I spent so much of my time when I was growing up just worrying about what people thought of me, about my appearance, how I should act in school, how to… be popular and all that rubbish. Stop worrying about everything. Everything’s going to be okay.
I’m a Slovak. And when I was growing up, I believed that I was Czechoslovakian because of what Russia did. They came in and took two separate countries – Slovakia and the Czech Republic – put them together as one.
Growing up in Luton, we’d always eat on a cloth, placed on the floor of the living room, with no TV allowed. There were no chairs back in Bangladesh and Dad wanted to keep the tradition, so we never owned a dining table.
