Benedict Cumberbatch, Claire Foy, Michael B Jordan, & Issa Rae Cover 'Variety'

Claire Foy, Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael B Jordan, and Issa Rae are on the cover of Variety‘s new Variety Studio: Actors on Actors Presented by Shutterstock issues.

Also on a separate cover are Laura Dern and Angela Bassett, pictured below. Here’s what they had to share with the mag…

Michael, on what he told his agents: “I told my agents, “I don’t want to go out for any role that’s written for African-Americans in the breakdown.” I said, “I want to go for any white males. That’s it. That’s all I want to do.” Because me playing that role is going to make it what it is.”

Angela, on choosing 9-1-1: “For so long, I think I resisted the idea of doing a show that may go seven years or more. Because just the nature of this business, I love how you get to change and grow and put on different characters and ideas and suits and interact with different people and directors and actors and situations and locations. The idea of staying put isn’t one that I’ve embraced, but as you mature, you try to find roles and situations that are interesting. This was one.”

Benedict, on the guilt of landing a big role: “You feel this sense of guilt like, “Are you sure you’ve got this right? I mean, there’s literally five people I know who would cut off their right hand to do it, and who would be much better, in my opinion.” All the time. It’s like you know how lucky you are when it works out for you. That’s another key motivator for me — just to sort of prove people’s trust or faith in me. I just go, “Right. Well, they’ve made this choice. I’ve really, really got to fulfill.”

You can check out more from the actors at Variety.com.