Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I'm not the most articulate person.
My favorite film is 'All About Eve'.
I'm shy at public speaking, which is tough.
I was an attention seeker, always in trouble.
I don't trust anyone who doesn't change their mind.
Never think that one voice is too small to be heard.
I think that is important, to not make people feel alien.
I work best when there's a safety trampoline of kindness.
Ireland is home. And I'd love to move home. That's always been the plan.
I grew up in a lot of different places, so I pick up accents pretty quickly.
I love the Greeks. There's no messing around - it's all do or die with them.
My family very much adored me, and at school, I was an object of fascination.
Bette Davis is my hero. I'm obsessed with her. I base everything I do on her.
My whole life is an interracial relationship! It's inescapable. I am who I am.
I've met loads of black and brown and various people who are well into comics.
I don't like hobbies. I read and travel and see my friends before they disown me.
Women always have to have this soft, maternal, sort of - I don't know - moral center.
I don't like the term 'colour-blind' - because I don't want people to be blind to my colour.
I don't know why women aren't allowed to have the same sort of breadth and scope and flaws of men.
You don't come to see a Greek play and not want blood and gore and depth of feeling from your boots up.
I think it's a good thing for everybody that we see the entire world reflected back at us on our screens.
Sometimes, people know me from Marvel's 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' But that usually only happens in America.
I become very territorial about my identity because it's been hijacked by so many people with their own projections.
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 don't really know how strong someone is if they're compelled to a life of violence. Is that strong? No. That's damaged.
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 like connecting with people, and that's what good art is: a point of connection. There's nothing better, on stage or on film.
I am not hugely famous; I am not a name. For me, it's not the size of the role, it's the material and the people you are working with.
I've always had sort of an interest in American history, full stop, and especially people who contributed to the civil rights struggle.
When you connect to someone on a human level, and you get to know about them, you can begin to love the things that make them different.
I trained, went to college, trained, and got a job. Then got another job. When I wasn't working I worked at a bar, then got another job.
I think kids are amazing. You kind of just deal with stuff, don't you? It's only years later that you have to spend thousands in therapy.
The good thing about auditioning is that you get to test yourself and see if you can play this character - you're also auditioning yourself.
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!
History is written by the winners. My job as an artist is to speak up for those who might be perceived as the losers. Or those who can't shout.
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.
I had a very peripatetic childhood, so I bounced around. Lived in Ethiopia until I was, like, three or four and then lived between Ireland and London.
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.
We need to have a conversation about the fact that black faces are not as visible as they should be, that there is huge inequality everywhere in terms of race.
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.
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.
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.
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.
What I have wanted to do is take roles that are unexpected for people who look like me. Roles that the establishment would say, 'Oh, she couldn't possibly be that.'
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 like connecting with people, and that's what good art is, a point of connection. There's nothing better, on stage or on film, than feeling like you've achieved that.
The idea that you must treat actors a certain way in order to get a performance out of them kind of disturbs me, and it's disregarding what we do. Our job is to do our job.
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 youre in the way.
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 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.