Jay Ellis: I run the material, always with two people, sometimes three...

Every artist is a walking business. Your marketing tools are your headshots and your reel. That's what people see that's what your out there pushing trying to get a rep and that isn't easy.

Jay Ellis

marketing artist people

You can try your passion for a while and see if it works and if it doesn't, at least you tried. I think that's why I quit my job and went back to acting. I said this is what I'm going to dedicate my life to doing because I didn't want to look up and say, "Man I wish I would have been an actor. I wish I would have tried."

Jay Ellis

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At the end of the day, we're people and we should fight for each other and we should make sure the well-being of each one of us is taken care of.

Jay Ellis

fighting taken people

I try to be as realistic as possible.

Jay Ellis

realistic trying

I quit my job and for almost two years I didn't tell anyone, not even my family or friends. And for those two years I enrolled in acting classes. I acted in some capacity every single day.

Jay Ellis

class jobs years

We think that if we get tested, that means you have to have HIV. Or we think that just by knowing someone with HIV, we're going to get HIV or because he's gay or she's a lesbian or whatever. This false information has been put out there and it's created this stigma that stops us from going to find out if we're infected. The truth is it doesn't matter who you are, if you're having sex, you need to be getting tested, plain and simple.

Jay Ellis

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Ghana is one of the countries in Western Africa that still has quite a few of their slave castles still standing.

Jay Ellis

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You have to believe in yourself and you have to take risks. You know how people say 30 is new 20 and 40 is new 30? Well I think essentially what that's telling us is there are so many opportunities out there, you don't have to rush into something.

Jay Ellis

opportunity believe thinking

Once I got my business degree I realized I didn't want to do business anymore. My passion started to kick in and say, "Are you really sure this is what you want to do with the rest of your life? Are you 100% positive?"

Jay Ellis

degrees passion want

When you go out and audition, you're going to hear a lot of 'No's.' As weird as it may sound, you almost have to love hearing 'no' because you're going to hear it way more than you hear 'yes'.

Jay Ellis

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As long as you're consistently working on your craft, your heart is in the right place, and you pair that with being smart on how you present yourself to people, opportunities will appear.

Jay Ellis

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If you have HIV, I don't think there's anything to be ashamed of. Get treatment and don't think that you're out of options or resources because you're not.

Jay Ellis

hiv resources thinking

Knowing your HIV status is such an easy thing to do, but again, we've created this stigma around even going to get tested.

Jay Ellis

hiv knowing easy

We [African-Americans] are nearly half of all of the new cases of HIV every year, but we only represent 13 percent of the [U.S.] population. So, this is something that's literally bombarding our community, non-stop. We're such a small part of the nation [and] those numbers are alarming. We're putting ourselves in danger, we don't talk about getting tested and we don't talk about knowing [your status].

Jay Ellis

knowing numbers years

As a young, Black man in America, I look out and (realize) that our community is the most affected by HIV.

Jay Ellis

community men america

HIV is not a death sentence. It doesn't mean life's over. It means that life's going to be different, but you still get to have those moments that people who don't have HIV experience.

Jay Ellis

different mean people

I think our life is a journey, and we make mistakes, and it's how we learn from those mistakes and rebound from those mistakes that sets us on the path that we're meant to be on.

Jay Ellis

mistakes journey path life

I feel like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be, which is both settling and terrifying. The roller coaster is going, and there is no jumping off at this point unless I just go nuclear. It's a really interesting part of the whole journey.

Jay Ellis

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Dating, to people, can mean completely different things.

Jay Ellis

things dating different people

I'm insanely curious about life and everyone's story and where they come from and how they got to be who they are.

Jay Ellis

everyone story curious life

I run the material, always with two people, sometimes three. We all see things so differently, so to get a couple of people's perspectives on what I'm doing and the material itself is insanely helpful for honing in on what to take into the audition room.