Wyatt Cenac Quotes

Why is the world that I see around me mixed, and why is the world I see in movies filled with all white people? Why does it have to be like that?

No matter what happens, we couldn't let people say Asian-American actors can't act.

I hate white people writing for black people; it's so offensive. So we go out and look specifically for African-American voices.

I'm Italian. I wouldn't know how to play a Jew.

My work has always been controversial within certain segments of the Asian-American community. This is a community that is generally not represented well at all on the stage, in the media, etc. So on those few occasions when something comes along, everybody feels obligated to make sure that it represents his own point of view.

Film was something I didn't really think about when I was young, because if you looked like me, you weren't a film star.

The broad brush of stereotyping is what least appeals to people of color.

If you're going to make black movies only about black people, that's as bad as white movies only about white people.

I've heard about productions where it still happens: yellow face, taping up the eyes. It's hard to talk about it in a constructive way.

I have a huge issue with blackface.

I don't like that putdown: that when you're trying to achieve, you're trying to be white. That makes me mad.

There were very few British black women on TV or in music when I was a teenager; when you're growing up, you need someone you can identify with. I remember at Christmas being bought a doll that didn't look anything like me, so I threw it away.

Hollywood had a history of whitewashing and not representing.

I think that for the most part, black people specifically have sort of been used as props in TV shows as a way to move story along or as a way to make things more entertaining.

I was the first black director on 'Dallas.' I drove my car into the studio lot and the guard asked me who I was delivering to.

No one actually cares about blackface.

People who know me know I'm not a racist.

I've heard that Black people and Black faces don't sell magazines, but one day you're going to beg me to be on there.

As a gay man, I think the role of culture is central to how you change politics - culture is politics.

In Australia, there just weren't strong roles for actors of colour. I was often being asked to turn up for commercials with a ghetto blaster on my shoulder. I thought, 'Are we in the '60s?'

I was making big paintings with mythological themes. When I started painting black figures, the white professors were relieved, and the black students were like, 'She's on our side.' These are the kinds of issues that a white male artist just doesn't have to deal with.

There are expectations in how you play your character as a black woman, to be sassy and the same kind of feel, as if there are no quirky black women. I struggle with those things constantly, trying to add dimension to my work, and that's the goal, too.

I think that show will go down in history... people will scratch their heads and say 'How did this ever get on the air?' I mean, they finally have a planet that's populated with a black race and then they present them as savage warriors, and the men want the white girl!

I'm a natural blonde. But when I started acting, I would go to auditions and they didn't know where to put me because I was voluptuous and had the accent, but I had blonde hair. It was ignorance: they thought every Latin person looks like Salma Hayek.

It's hilarious a lot of times. You have a conversation with someone, and he's like, 'You speak so well!' I'm like, 'What do you mean? Do you understand that's an insult?