Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" I'm always very careful to say I'm Irish-Ethiopian because I feel Ethiopian and I look Ethiopian and I am Ethiopian. But there are 81 languages in Ethiopia, and I don't know any of them. "

Related Quotes:

" People have always made assumptions about me. I become very territorial about my identity because it's been hijacked by so many people with their own projections. "

Ruth Negga

Own

People

" Ninety percent of my roles, I've had to fight for. It's only a really small percentage of people who get handed roles. "

" I have not been aggressive in my pursuit of being a star. I've never had a plan. Maybe I need to be more aggressive, because it's quite tough! "

" The god of theater laughs in your face at planning. You can't plan as an actor; there's no way, because so much of it is dependent on other people's choices and decisions that you're at the whim of fate, really. "

" If people want to invade your privacy, they want to invade your privacy. I find it chilling, and I find it awful, and it makes me really nervous. It hasn't happened to me much, but when you have a taste of it, it's bitter. "

Ruth Negga

Find

Nervous

" I don't believe that directors need to essentially manipulate actors into doing things. You can suffer for your art, and you can make your own self suffer for your art. You don't need anyone else to do it for you. I work best when there's a safety trampoline of kindness. "

" I think it's a good thing for everybody that we see the entire world reflected back at us on our screens. "

Ruth Negga

Back

World

" I don't think I've necessarily been able to pick and choose in my career; I don't know how many people do. But I'll tell you what I've been able to do: I've been able to say no. It is the only thing you can hold on to sometimes, is that ability to say 'no.' And I think that in that way, you can create some kind of career. "

" I didn't become an actor to make money. And I didn't become an actor to be famous - though people always gasp if you say that, as if it's unfathomable that an actor doesn't want to be a star. "

" Sometimes, people know me from Marvel's 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' But that usually only happens in America. "

Ruth Negga

America

Know

" I don't like hobbies. I read and travel and see my friends before they disown me. "

Ruth Negga

Friends

" I'm not the most articulate person. "

" I've always been very talkative, very chatty, quite hyperactive. I grew up with a lot of cousins, and most of them were boys. Four in particular and I were the demolition squad. Havoc. "

" I've gone into auditions, and I think they have an assumption about me when they see my photo, and then I open my mouth, and they say, 'Where exactly are you from? And you were born in Ethiopia? But you're Irish, but you also kind of sound English. That's really strange.' "

Ruth Negga

Born

You

" My whole life is an interracial relationship! It's inescapable. I am who I am. "

" Women always have to have this soft, maternal, sort of - I don't know - moral center. "

" Violence in film and television is an ongoing conversation, and I like eavesdropping on it, but I'm never sure what my opinion is. I like watching creative violence, but I don't know. "

" People ask me where I'm from. I say Ireland, and they are like 'Really? You don't look Irish.' Then you have to explain... people are intrigued, but sometimes you think, 'Why do I have to tell my whole story every time I open my mouth? "

Ruth Negga

People

Story

" I use the term 'spine' for people when I think that they may seem on the surface sort of reticent, shy, self-deprecating, shying away from the spotlight. Quiet. "

" My job as an artist is to speak up for those who might be perceived as the losers. Or those who can't shout. No wonder public-school people always get into politics or acting: they're taught to shout that much more loudly. "

" I was moved by the 'Lovings' story because of my own background as a mixed-race person. "

" Stories about race and identity pique my interest for obvious reasons. That's in my body, my brain, my history, my memories - it's all part of my toolbox as an actor. "

" I grew up in an area of Ireland where there weren't many black or mixed-race children. But I never had any hassle; maybe I've blocked it out, but I don't think so. "

" People have these ideas about comic books and their adaptations as flashy and sort of surface-y, broad-strokes-type projects, but they're not, really. "

" I think if we don't understand history, if we don't keep referring back to it, we become complacent. And complacency, as we all know, it leads to repeating history. "

" When you work with directors who really love actors, who love their contribution, it feels amazing. But sometimes when you work with directors, you feel like you're in the way. "

" I'm shy at public speaking, which is tough. "

" I think a lot of actors feel like outsiders or miscreants. This profession provides an opportunity to play out all the different parts of ourselves. "

" Diversity needs to operate on every level. It's great that the Oscars have highlighted it, but black actors getting nominated shouldn't be the only result. There's so much more that needs to be done. "

" I'm interested in the idea that we all start off as these lovely little babies with all this potential but that circumstances mean that we don't always live the life we should. "