"Hollywood Shuffle, directed by and starring Robert Townsend — so there’s a theme."

"The Five Heartbeats. That movie’s awesome. It’s kind of like The Temptations, but it’s a movie about a big band, well I guess it’s the story of the band, and they’re all brothers. Like The Temptations except it’s a little funnier. I mean it stars Robert Townsend, who’s really good."

"An African American filmmaker [Robert Townsend] and being Keenen’s little brother inspired me to want to do movies. It really told the whole truth about African-Americans in the struggle, in a funny way, without all of us banging on the door going, “Hey Hollywood, love us.” Through laughter, it erased color lines, and is one of my all time favorites. I love when you do a movie with people doing multiple characters. That’s something I do and love to do, and I find that it’s one of the hardest things to do and still be grounded as a regular person in a movie. I’m inspired to do movies like that in my next phase."