- Bad Manners
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- Nov 07, 2020
Me Quotes
Quotes rooted in the first person.
These are quotes centered on 'me' - childhood memories tied to family traditions, like a grandfather's holiday reading passed down for decades, alongside admissions about how humor can double as self-protection. Several speak to the solitary nature of creative work, something also explored in Life Quotes.
- Last Updated on May 30, 2021
- Great
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- Nov 07, 2020
We start 'The Butler' in June and that's incredibly exciting for me because I get to work with the amazing Forest Whitaker again. It's a phenomenal script and a great, great role - I play his son. Oprah Winfrey is his wife and my mother. My character is a radical civil rights activist.
- Love
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- Nov 07, 2020
I love that as a black person I've experienced not being a minority. I think that's helped me to combat the minority mentality people can have here, which can stop them scaling the heights.
- Love
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- Nov 07, 2020
Considering that I'm British and I talk the way I do, I love it when a director takes a chance on me.
- Great
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- Nov 07, 2020
Getting to do what I think was my fifth BBC drama with Nikki Amuka-Bird - we've done 'Shoot The Messenger,' 'Five Days,' 'The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency,' 'Born Equal' and now 'Small Island' - was another highlight for me. And filming in Jamaica was great, too.
- People
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- Nov 07, 2020
For me, I'm always looking for opportunities to work with people who are better than me, who are more experienced than me, people from whom I can learn. And who could I learn more from than someone with an unprecedented movie star career that has spanned over thirty years whose name is Tom Cruise?
- Black
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- Nov 07, 2020
One of the things I have an allergic reaction to playing, especially as a black actor, is the mandatory kind of best friend/cop/detective type. You will never see me in that movie.
- Challenges
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- Nov 07, 2020
There are a lot of challenges I undeniably have faced as a black person both in the U.K. and in the U.S. that contrived to make me feel lesser than what I am.
- Good
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- Nov 07, 2020
I've never, ever taken a role for money purposes or for some bizarre notion of what may be the kind of career move that would open things up for me. If I don't believe in it, I can't do it because I won't be good in it if I don't believe in it.
- Picture
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- Nov 07, 2020
The only way I get a leading role in a studio picture is if Ryan Gosling can't play it, which is clearly the case with 'Selma.' If this was a non-colour-specific character, it wouldn't be me. It just wouldn't.
- God
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- Nov 07, 2020
I know that I am not owed the right to make movies. I know God has given me this privileged position, and I have to work dog-hard as an actor to make the films the best they can be.
- Loved
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- Nov 07, 2020
I grew up watching period dramas, as we all did in the 1980s and '90s - endless adaptations of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens - and I loved them. But I never saw anyone like me in them, so I decided to find a story to erode the excuses for me not doing one.
- Black
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- Nov 07, 2020
The fact that I was black and desirous to do my work, the other kids would call me a coconut, as if I were somehow attempting to be white. The bullying was real: I'd get punched, spat at, terrible things.
- Best
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- Nov 07, 2020
People always ask me, 'Why so many historical dramas?' Because those are the best roles I get to play, and I get to play heroes in those roles.
- Character
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- Nov 07, 2020