Raftaar Quotes

My grandmothers are Irish-American and German-American; my grandfather is from the Caribbean. My father is African-American. My family looked funny. I just started naturally imitating whoever I was talking to. I didn't want to be a phony, but I felt very authentic in the moment.

Don't get me wrong - I'm a big fan of things American - but when American people do British stuff, it's so universally dreadful.

I've had battles with writers who live in L.A. and were writing southern characters, because they felt like if they wrote 'Sugar' and 'Honey' at the end of every sentence, that would make it southern.

Sometimes in the mainstream movies, a character who is from the South is portrayed by a person who looks like a South Indian but speaks in fake accent.

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

I never worked with a dialogue coach before, but I'd hate it if an American did a British accent and didn't do it well. It would be insulting.

You don't have to spend much time in Shanghai before you start to get all existential about the meaning of authenticity. Did you know that Shanghai is building nine satellite towns, each designed to mimic the architecture and culture of a different country?

I love Jet Li, but he looks very Chinese, and his English is Chinese-accented. He wouldn't have been the right guy to play a Japanese-American.

I feel like I'm kind of faking something if I'm talking as myself and putting on an accent.

We sing in English, not mimicking some American rock singer's accent. That's just pretending to be something you ain't.

In Australia, kids play in American accents.

They made me use an accent, which I wasn't thrilled about because a lot of us, obviously, don't have them.

Indian writers have appropriated English as an Indian language, and that gives a certain freshness to the way we write.

I know that Philadelphians hate New York actors passing off New York accents as Philadelphian when they are quite different.

Is it, perhaps, possible that there are two kinds of Civilization--one for home consumption and one for the heathen market?

While [European] national cultures were concocted to distinguish one economic unit of capital from another, civilizational thinking was invented to unify these cultures against their colonial consequences. Islamic, Indian, or African civilizations were invented contrapuntally by Orientalism…in order to match, balance and thus authenticate ‘Western Civilization’.

That's acting for you. 'White Queen' has English playing Welsh and vice versa.

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 mum won't speak to me unless I speak properly on the phone. I have to speak 'American' for work, so often the accent comes through when I'm not at work.

I have been in rooms with people arguing over a character that's not really fleshed out: that, just because the surname is Latino, that automatically means you have an accent.

You're not from Puerto Rico, so you should say Puerto Rico like all the other people from the place that you come from.

I find it really difficult when you make a movie where it is set in Russia and everyone speaks in English. It drives me crazy.

I've heard other actors saying they don't want to play a character with an accent at all. To me, that's kind of an insult to somebody like me who did have an accent.

When I go to Korea and they say, 'Sing like a Korean person,' I can't do it. I didn't grow up with that sound.

Now, I don't know about my peers, but I get nervous - okay, I genuinely freak out - when an actor starts trying on a Southern accent. That's for Brits trying to find the easiest way to sound American.