I've had some experience in track and field in school, but I did have to train to be able to play Jesse Owens - to be a runner, to be an Olympian.
I really believe in speaking things into existence.
I care a lot about who I'm working with as directors and other actors.
The first time I sat in a theater and watched myself on a screen was an out-of-body experience. It blew my mind.
I got obsessed with impersonations: impersonating people that I knew - people, not famous people but people like my family. At first, it was just fun; it's always been just fun. But I sort of got to a point in maybe seventh or eighth grade where I started getting heavily involved in drama programs via programs in my high school.
I realize the importance of retelling those stories is so that, one, we don't forget what our ancestors had to do so we can be where we are, and two, to just educate the newer generation. I'm being educated by all these films ['Race' and 'Selma'] and the things I've had the opportunity to be a part of, and kids even younger than me are being educated, too. It's important to make sure those stories never die.
Growing up, I was always into sports - basketball and volleyball - but I wasn't really a runner.
That was my goal in portraying Jesse Owens: bringing that level of humanity so people could understand who he was as a person.
When we started making 'Selma,' the Black Lives Matter movement didn't exist. The parallels between Martin Luther King staging these marches, suffering police brutality... we weren't even aware when making the film that these sorts of things would start to happen again in 2015.
I'm black, yeah, but I'm just an actor, so everything I do doesn't have to be color-specific or specific to history. But I got to a point where a lot of people wanted to offer me period pieces, like that's the only thing I could do.
When I first got the call from my manager asking if I'd ever heard of Jesse Owens, I recognized the name, looked him up, and was blown away by his story.
While shooting 'Selma,' I would train on my off time with the assistant men's track and field coach at Georgia Tech.
I'm from Toronto, so I listen to a lot of Toronto artists.
I think I have an incredible group of people that I work with and people I'm inspired by and community I'm inspired by, and I just want to see us all win and continue to grow and flourish and do incredible things and tell stories in the way they've never been told. Take risks, be bold, and be smart.
I feel like I've always been an actor.
I've been a big fan of Barry Jenkins for a long time.
My mom used to buy us a whole lot of VHS tapes - we had boxes of them, hundreds of them. So we would just go through movies all the time.
I've always been pretty reserved, but after taking drama classes in middle school to get more comfortable performing in front of people, I thought I should try out for television.
I want to continue to grow and evolve, and I want to help other people grow and evolve.
I've loved Basquiat since I was 13. From his artwork to his interviews to the way he thought about things, I've always been excited by him.
Luckily enough, I've been able to work with Ava DuVernay, who was able to rally this large ensemble and get us all on the same page for 'Selma.'
We have to start creating more material that gives a platform for people of colour, for women, for old people and young people alike to be able to showcase their talent. It's much bigger than a black or white thing.
I know I'm a black actor, but really, I'm an actor who happens to be black.
My parents are from Jamaica, and I love reggae music.
I enjoy challenging perspective - challenging ideas of what it means to be a black man.
It's important to me for the world to see black men in different capacities - capacities in which they're probably not used to seeing them.
The best filmmakers have a very familial attitude in sort of embracing the set, beyond the cast, with the wardrobe, and the hair and makeup, and the props, just making everybody feel very familial.
When is not a good time to speak up for our vets and support them in any way that we can?
I really appreciate Barry Jenkins as a filmmaker and the fact that he's always wanting to push the envelope and challenge perspective and make people uncomfortable in a way that doesn't seem like it's allowed anymore.
Stephan James may refer to either:
