Lana Condor Quotes

Growing up, I never saw any Asian faces on TV, so it didn't feel like a viable option.

I'm very happy to have the heritage that I do, but I'm not wanting to be 'the Latino actor.' I just want to be 'an actor.'

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.

When it comes to African Americans and African American actors, Hollywood has always felt that if you can make us laugh, that's fine, but we don't need to see you do a 'Schindler's List,' where there's no jokes or music or comedic through-line.

I think it was hard for people to cast me as an ethnic, as an Asian American woman.

I'm fighting the label of 'Black' actress simply because it's very limiting in people's eyes, especially people who are making movies.

I know a lot of brown actors who play terrorists because they're physically intimidating. For me, it was like, 'O.K., you'll be the nerd.' So I've played the nerd. I've played food-delivery guys. But I always tried to find something in the characters so that they weren't just defined by what they looked like.

For a while, I was feeling like I was always playing characters that weren't specifically Korean or specifically Asian, even - that they were characters who were originally written white, and then they would cast me. And I used to consider that a badge of honor because that meant I had avoided stereotypes.

Growing up, I didn't see anybody with my skin color or my background. I didn't know it was possible to have a Middle Eastern actor in a lead role.

I wasn't, like, pretty enough to be the ingenue; I wasn't 'character' enough to be the goofball sidekick. I'm kind of ethnically ambiguous.

I do think that being a BAME actor does make it difficult to avoid stereotypes.

I had a niche. And my niche was that I was brown. So it's like, 'Great, I get to go up for all these 'brown parts.'' I call them 'brown parts' because that's what they are. That's not to be resentful, because I loved playing those parts - I got to meet so many cool actors.

I can't compete for roles that require me to be Caucasian or African American, even if those characters really connect with me and intrigue me.

At some point along the way, I stopped being a writer, and I became a black writer. I never used to be a black writer. I used to write 'Spider-Man,' 'Green Lantern,' whatever was lying around. 'Thor,' 'Hulk,' whatever. Now, if the phone rings or when the phone rings, it's almost exclusively some project that has something to do with my ethnicity.

Casting directors will often say that they are open to any ethnicity, but they're not.

When I get called in for stuff for Hollywood, I get to be the best friend of the Caucasian leadIf I want to play the main guy, I have found, I have to write it.

No matter how cutting-edge Hollywood may seem, it is still delayed in how it views people: If producers do not perceive me as an Iranian girl, then I cannot play an Iranian girl. If you aren't perceived as a full black girl, then it makes it more difficult to play a black girl on TV.

I was always a wrestling fan, and being an Arab kid who grew up in Canada, there was no representation for people like me.

The American girl doesn't look just one kind of way - not in 2018, not ever.

I want to represent my color and ethnicity. To be proud of our heritages is really cool.

I think it's not an accident that you don't have that many Asian American women writers who are breaking out. I don't think it's an accident that you don't have that many Asian American writers, either women or men. I don't think that immigrants are encouraged to become artists. That's very gendered and racialized and ethnicized.

Being a plus-size actress, it is slim pickings, so anytime any role comes up for a plus-size actress, my agents are all over it, and they were like, 'You have to book this job. It's 'American Horror Story.' It's a big deal.' No pressure, right?

I grew up in a very, very diverse neighborhood back home in Maryland. And when I see that on TV shows, it makes me want to watch it, personally. I just gravitate towards that.

When I saw Neneh Cherry singing on TV, I was so glad that there was someone of the same ethnicity - and with the same curly hair - for me to look up to.

I don't think the White House has always reflected the textures and flavors of this country.