Billy Bob Thornton Quotes

Action roles - or any role - should go to the best guy for the job. People obsess about nationality. Hollywood and America might be the hub for pop culture and cinema for the Western world, but that shouldn't suggest that all the roles should go to young American men.

It's so funny how it's impossible for an American actor to play an English part or an Australian part. But by all means, come and bastardize our accent as much as you want.

My job is to go into that audition and be good enough of an Asian actor - or an actor in general - to land that role so they don't have to go out and hire a white guy. My job is to make sure I capitalize on these opportunities that other people created.

It's important to me to reach deep into the community and promote Latino artists.

I bring a lot of 'y'all' up to New York with me.

When I found out that I'm playing Nagini, I thought it was meaningful because it's an important character in the 'Harry Potter' series. 'Harry Potter' is a franchise film with many Caucasian actors, so I thought many Korean viewers would be happy.

The younger generation of filmmakers is concerned about our roots, rather than making films with characters plucked out of the cloud or some English DVD. Actually since 2000, Tamil cinema is going through some positive changes.

It's a slippery slope when you make the argument that hip hop is only a black person's art. Certainly, its origins are in that community, but if you want it to endure as an art form you have to let other people have their way with it.

My friend and I founded the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival to counter the negative images of Arabs in media. And we always made sure that the comedy came first. So we weren't a bunch of Arabs trying to be funny. We were a bunch of comedians who just happened to be of Arab heritage.

As one of the largest states in the country, Florida's vibrant diversity is a key part of our nation's story.

The cities that I go to where I can tell that they have a lot of different types of drag, I tell them that they remind me of Brooklyn, and I mean that as the highest compliment in the entire world.

I'm constantly trying to introduce new voices in Tamil film music.

We agree that there is a problem in the sketch and improv community where, in general, there should be more interest from a more diverse sampling of our society. That is precisely why we do have diversity scholarships and why we've put together a diversity program to try to figure this problem out.

A police officer asked me why I agreed to play a Pakistani in my films. I told him that someone has to do different, na. If everyone will become Indian army officer then how the story will proceed?

I don't discriminate against straight or gay people in casting; I'm open to good acting.

I definitely have a lot of Korean-American fans, which is amazing.

I wanted to open the dialogue about race in ballet and bring more people in. It's just beautiful to see the interest that has exploded for such an incredible art form that I will forever be grateful to!

I think it's really important that we have diversity - whether it's different languages, cultures - be involved in film and in the arts.

My talent is universal, and acting is a craft that can be used anywhere, unless ethnicity comes into play, and then, looks matter.

Just like how you find players from different backgrounds in Indian cricket team, our Telugu industry is looking for talent, and it doesn't matter where it comes from.

I always wanted to let people know I was Filipino, but I didn't want to go up on stage and make it so you wouldn't understand my jokes because you're white or black. I always wanted to let people know I was Filipino through my mom. That was always my goal. That way, everyone got it. You don't have to be Filipino to understand my mom.

There isn't only one way that black art or entertainment is represented, and that's the most important thing. We're permeating every style. We're claiming and, when necessary, appropriating all kinds of forms. Nothing is forbidden, because it's not what black people do: because it's not what we think of as black art.

Road trips are amazing because you get to see the true India from a street level and interact with people from different states that have so much pride in their local heritage, food, and customs.

We West Indian cricketers are always proud to play for the West Indies and we know we are made up of different islands and different cultures but we have to be able to mesh together, to come together and perform as a team.

I think audiences are far too sophisticated now to have an English actor putting on a Russian accent - it feels fake.