Daniel Kaluuya Quotes
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I love being black.
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I wrote my first play when I was nine. It was performed at Hampstead Theatre.
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I think the 'sunken place' - that term is what I hear when I'm just casually living my life. People say it around me. Not because they're around me; they're saying it because it articulated a state of mind. Lil Wayne's rapped about it.
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I know what it means to be stopped by police. I've been stopped by police a lot.
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When work ends, I'd rather just be seen as Daniel - normal.
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I have to show off my struggle so that people accept that I'm black. No matter that every single room I go to, I'm usually the darkest person there... I kind of resent that mentality. I'm just an individual.
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Sometimes I'll work in America, sometimes I'll work in England. What's important is fulfilment. I just want to tell stories.
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There's a lot of black men running around with crazy trauma scars, and they should be going to therapy. They should be sitting down and talking to people. But they can't. If you've got the armor of being a man, and the armor of being a black man, that hyper-masculine thing can make those scars deeper.
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I think the traditional stereotypes are loaded in institutional racism.
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Everything men do is for women.
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Nas is such a touchstone in my world.
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Writing can be really lonely, and I find that bit difficult. I'd rather be around my people, getting ideas.
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I did a play, back in the day, called 'Sucker Punch,' and it meant so much for me. I was 21. And I went, 'I just want to do work like that.' Stuff I believe in. And when I have compromised, I've never really felt good about it.
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Some black women hug me and walk away. A lot of black men talk about dating white women and how they've been there, too. People open up about their racial experiences. I feel like I'm a walking therapy session. It's quite intense. But it means a lot to people.
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What you want to do is make people talk, start a conversation.
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'The Fades' is its own world. If you try and link it to some religion, you have people going, 'Oh, that's not right,' with their Bible open. Let's just chuck some imagination at it.
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Having something that makes money changes everything. I'm from England, and it's very much about credibility there. And yeah, it is about that. But the money can change things. And so you understand it's a business.
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I go to Uganda, I can't speak the language. In India, I'm black. In the black community, I'm dark-skinned. In America, I'm British.
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I learned so much on 'Sicario' and working with that group of actors, where there was the audacity, the confidence, to do nothing.
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I love comedy. I don't think there's enough comedy on stage.
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Big up Samuel L. Jackson, because here's a guy who has broken down doors.
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Loads of stuff that I've done has always had a hint of comedy. I did this show called 'Psychoville' that's a horror-comedy. Because I just think that's what life's like.
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Being young, working class, and black, everything you do is policed. If someone hits you and you hit back, you are aggressive. If you cry, you are weak. You are kind of always pretending to be something.
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Life ain't a drama. And life isn't just a comedy. Life is sometimes horrifying. Life is science-fiction. There are all elements and faculties that we navigate, so I just expect a script to reflect that. As long as it's truthful. I think genre-bending is just being honest.