Duniya Vijay Quotes

Most people figured I'd be in jail. I've been proving people wrong my whole life.

I remember one director in Argentina said to me, 'You are not going to have any opportunity to be a leading lady because of your height.' And I didn't care. I don't have a complex.

I was the kind nobody thought could make it. I had a funny Boston accent. I couldn't pronounce my R's. I wasn't a beauty.

I think at the age I'm at, it's really hard for a film career, and I'm at a point in my life where I thought it would be a good idea to be a part of a good show and to be able to finish school.

A misfit like me getting anywhere in Hollywood as I somehow have, seemed, certainly at the time of 'Spanking The Monkey,' kind of out of reach, or not a very realistic take.

I try to stay consciously away from the roles of the girl who throws herself at the leading man, because I've done it a lot and I want to move on. I ticked that box.

I look at someone like Kathryn Bigelow, and I have so much admiration. She's playing in the boy's sandpit, and winning.

'Night of the Comet' established me as a strong woman. And let's face it, this business is very surface and one dimensional - so it's easy to get typecast.

I love a challenge. And I love defying limitation, gender stereotypes, and people's expectations of me as an actress.

It is horrible to say, but I was stigmatized by being a bridal designer for a long time. I am amazed I have been able to move beyond it. I had really all but given up trying, but I did it because it was my lifelong dream.

I was very skinny, braces; so I never thought I would be a model.

When I became a director, I wanted to convince a very reluctant Sidney into allowing me to go on the journey of his life. Sidney had gone ahead of every other African American actor.

People pay to see movies with women looking beautiful, but I think there will be a place for me to play women looking my own age.

If you are a woman and an actor, it does not mean that you have to contain or limit yourself to just being that.

The people I'm drawn to are sort of self-created. They came from backgrounds where not much was expected of them, necessarily.

Girls, we have to go 10 times harder than guys. We are still expected to give you the bars, give you the look, give you the routine. This is me - I wanna be a rapper, this is it.

I was such a mama's boy that no one imagined that I could come into the film line. She wanted me to do a bank job.

As a 6-foot, 6-inch, 300-pound black man, I've done everything I can to stay out of that box that Hollywood tries to put me in. I've been able to play a variety of roles, like the character of Vern in 'Shall We Dance?' with Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez to the character of Neal in 'Things We Lost in the Fire.' I've been blessed.

Most of the time actresses are just left to play the actor's wife or girlfriend so there is not much to do. 'Chalo Dilli' was a refreshing change which was different and that's why I decided to work in it.

I feel like I've been proving people wrong all my life.

People think that you're gonna come out, be a one hit wonder, and finished. You gotta prove 'em wrong.

Girls are supposed to sing. It's the guys' thing to play the guitar. Crossing the line is kind of like trying to be a male ballerina. But if you work long and hard enough, are really passionate about it, people will finally shut up and listen.

I'm kind of a smaller guy in my given profession, and people always told me I'm too small, so I know how it feels to have people tell you you'll never be anything.

My whole career, when I was in Croatia, people questioned me, saying I wouldn't make it, that I wasn't good enough because I wasn't big and strong.

I don't really care anymore: I'm fiercely proud of the fact I've been able to make a career despite the fact I wasn't born into privately educated schools.