Ruben Blades Quotes

I always feel that the best roles are written for white guys.

One thing that I've been very vocal about roles I take, and my representation has been very smart about, is that I didn't go to Juilliard to be "Thug #2" in movies. I like to be challenged. I'd say that about 40% of the roles I've done have been written for white men.

I tend to play characters that aren't supposed to black or written black.

It's hard because I seek out strong female roles. I turn down a lot of stuff, not because it's not good, but because I don't want to play certain types of characters. I don't like to just play the pretty girl.

Yes. Otherwise I could have done a lot of Hollywood movies. After Crouching Tiger I got a lot of offers, but I turned them down because they were all victim roles - poor girls sold to America to be a wife or whatever. I know I have the ability to go deeper, to take on more original roles than that.

I do try and stay away from the stereotype and getting typecast.

I'm quietly becoming New York's premiere actor. People don't understand. They have me pigeon-holed as a comedian.

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.

When a casting agent sees me, he kind of knows what he's getting.

Considering that I'm British and I talk the way I do, I love it when a director takes a chance on me.

One of my personal plights in this business is about playing 'The Sassy Black Girl.'

No one ever let me be a bad guy once I started working more frequently after I got out of college and started pursuing acting. I just got all of the good-guy roles because if I walk in the room, not a lot of people believe me as a bad guy.

I think I would not be described as a character actor in that I don't take on characteristics which are very alien to me.

I realized with Broadway everything written for black people is usually written in the past, and I'm kind of a contemporary guy. I don't think you want to see me in 'Raisin in the Sun'.

An accent like mine and a face like mine, I think a lot of the time it's easy for casting directors to just stick me in as a bad boy, but 'Being Human' took a risk on me - bless 'em - and I'm not that bad boy no more.

Is typecasting really a problem?

I know, it's true. I've played these tortured teenagers. I can't wait to shed that image.

It's important for us to certainly cast some Christian actors who can speak to our audience when we market the films, but obviously we don't discriminate. So our crew and our cast, the beliefs don't really matter.

I try to do more intelligent roles, unusual roles, and stronger women, and that's helped me a little bit with my casting opportunities.

It's great to play somebody's wife, but not all the time. There's so many other stories to tell.

As an actor, you just like to be able to play as much range. I just want to be invisible. I want to be able to be perceived as an artist as opposed to 'a black actor': that's the joy.

Sooner or later, directors in Germany will start casting without regard to where a person is from. It shouldn't matter anymore.

I try to take roles that don't fall within the parameters of any Asian stereotype.

I don't want people saying, 'Should we get a female director?' I want to hear, 'Should we get a great director for this movie?'

People always say, 'Oh, you've played a lot of waifs... ' but they were just girls. It's just that a lot of those everyday characters had never been on the screen before. I do hope I didn't get typed. I feel myself that I tried to do different things with those women.