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" Basically, the system works to my disadvantage for no other reason than that I am a person of color, and I am telling stories about people of color. "
Justin Simien
Color
Reason
People
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" I'm a lover of film and storytelling. I believe that I was put on earth to tell stories, and I'm not interested in telling the same stories over and over and over again. "
Justin Simien
Believe
Earth
I Believe
" Everybody else was quoting 2Pac, and I was running around with Green Day in my Walkman. Racially speaking, I wasn't cool or appropriate for any group. "
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Running
Group
Green
" Everyone at a performing arts schools is weird. The weirder you were, the better. If you weren't weird in some way, they'd look at you and be like, 'Who's that square?' "
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Way
Arts
You
" There are a plethora of ways of being black, just like there's many ways to being white. "
Justin Simien
Ways
Being
Black
" I think unless we have an honest conversation about race and identity in this country, we're never going to get anywhere. "
Justin Simien
Think
Identity
Get
" For me it's just, I have too many ideas, man. It's a problem, actually. "
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Man
Many
Me
" I never quite lived up to the image of the black man as I saw it growing up. I was never listening to the right music at the right time or wearing the right clothes at the right time. I was still listening to Michael Jackson, and everyone had sort of moved on to gangster rap. Alanis Morissette when everyone else was listening to En Vogue. "
Justin Simien
Growing Up
Music
Man
" If you walk out of a movie that's meant to be about race in our country, and you're feeling good and happy, then that movie didn't tell you all of the truth. It's too big of an issue, and it's too complicated for you to feel good. It's something you should feel like you need to talk about. "
Justin Simien
Happy
Walk
You
" I think great movies do promote conversation, great movies are honest, and great movies are sometimes polarizing. "
Justin Simien
Think
Movies
Great
" One of the things that I love about Robert Altman's movies is that, really, a Robert Altman movie is just a bunch of short films about various people told at the same time. "
Justin Simien
Short
Love
Movies
" If I just wanted to put clean, perfect images of black people on the screen for an hour and a half, first of all, there are other people already doing that, and they're making a lot of money doing it. "
Justin Simien
Money
People
Perfect
" The thing about TV is you kind of have an endless canvas. You can always keep going. "
Justin Simien
You
Kind
Always
" Hip-hop isn't dead by any means, but it's not something I define my black identity with. "
Justin Simien
Dead
Black
Define
" America is a different country, and it will forever be a different country after the election of Donald Trump. "
Justin Simien
Donald Trump
Election
America
" There is an obsession with black tragedy. If you see a black movie, it's typically historical, and it tends to deal with our pain. And listen, there have been some excellent films made in that vein, and there are some painful parts of black history that should be explored, but it is kind of weird that only those films bubble up to the surface. "
Justin Simien
Weird
You
History
" I tend to be collaborative, and I want to hear other people's ideas. Especially with actors, I want them to feel like they can breathe life into their characters. "
Justin Simien
People
Breathe
Feel
" Everyone is very aware that, not only do we have a race problem, but it's so pervasive that it affects national and global politics on a scale that I don't think a lot of people imagined. "
Justin Simien
Race
Think
Politics
" I find myself listening to Blood Orange and Janelle Monae and artists like that. "
Justin Simien
Myself
Orange
Blood
" Shonda Rhimes has figured it out, of getting multiracial casts on television and appealing to everybody. "
Justin Simien
Television
Everybody
Getting
" 'Color-blind' comes up - people say 'Oh, I'm color-blind and therefore can't be accused of racism,' but I think that if we are going to have an honest dialogue about racism, we have to admit that people of color are having a different experience. "
Justin Simien
Experience
Color
Think
" Usually, with 'Star Trek,' you always trust the captain. The captains are always going to pull us through; the captain's always going to win. "
Justin Simien
Captain
Win
Trust
" I often have to play a role to get what I want in my life. At the same time, I can't do that without also nourishing who I really am and being aware of my true self and the ways in which I'm not bound by my race or sexual orientation or class or country or whatever. "
Justin Simien
Life
Play
Race
" When you're part of a society where you're constantly having to define your identity and sort of negotiate with what the mainstream culture thinks you are, you have less energy and time to figure out who you are when you go home at night. "
Justin Simien
Home
Go
Culture
" The way Hollywood and TV is, black people don't have any choice but to see ourselves in white-dominated television shows and stories and movies. "
Justin Simien
Choice
Hollywood
Movies
" You watch 'Malcolm X,' and then Netflix recommends 'B.A.P.S.,' and you're like, 'What? Those movies have absolutely nothing to do with each other, but OK.' They don't recommend other historical biopics - it's 'B.A.P.S.' and 'Ghost Dad.' "
Justin Simien
Like
You
Watch
" '2001: A Space Odyssey' - I'd watched and hated it seven times before it provided the first 'religious experience' I'd ever had watching a film. Finally, I was able to pick up on what the film was transmitting almost entirely through dialogue. "
Justin Simien
Space
Watching
First
" Self-doubt is a constant companion for a chubby, gay, black boy born in the South. "
Justin Simien
Boy
Born
Black
" I want to make movies in every genre. "
Justin Simien
Make
Every
Genre
" I saw 'Beauty and the Beast' at eight years old in theatres and spent hours trying to recreate the majestic imagery of that story in a drawing notepad at home. "
Justin Simien
Story
Beauty
Drawing
" It's called 'Dear White People,' but really, it's about these black characters and how they are involved or not involved in a racial scandal in ways that might surprise them and others, right? "
Justin Simien
Racial
Surprise
White