D. B. Sweeney Quotes

The pilots I did test for, I was the only black actor testing against white actors for parts that were written white.

The truth is, no, we don't live in a post-racial state anywhere in America, and this is particularly true in Hollywood.

That's one of the problems with Hollywood. It'll say 'policeman,' and an unless it says 'black policeman,' a lot of times you won't even get the opportunity to read for it, which is kind of crazy, but that's the way it is.

What's hardest for me to swallow is when there is a love story, say, with a really high-profile male star and there's no reason I can't play the part. They say, 'Oh, we love Halle, we just don't want to go black with this part.'

I've been fortunate in my career, but, yes, there have been many times when I have been told my audition has been cancelled because they're only going to see white people.

I think #OscarsSoWhite is about there not truly being enough people of color represented.

A lot of the shows I have done, I'm often the only black guy and I have often had to play second or third fiddle. It isn't necessarily a bad thing if it is a strong ensemble cast. But I feel people have overlooked my abilities.

As black women, we're miles behind our white counterparts in being offered the space to create and craft female characters in major blockbuster films.

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.

Every year, Hollywood is looking for that new, white leading man and new white starlet that audiences fall in love with. But they're not looking for the next Denzel Washington, Will Smith or Sidney Poitier.

We're always trailing, as far as the amount of roles that are written for us and the films that are being made that have black characters in them. I don't know if that's going to change.

I go to castings and see several black and Asian girls, then I get to the show and look around there's just me and maybe one other coloured face.

We're told that independent film lovers... folks that are used to watching art house films, won't come out and see a film with black people in it - I've been told that in rooms, big rooms, studio rooms, and I know that's not true.

White actors still get way more money in Hollywood. It's been that way for a very long time. I hope it'll change, but it's a matter of forcing that change.

I don't think that the country is ever ready to have the conversation about race.

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?

The white actresses I have known have been allowed to do 10 times more than I shall ever do.

Maybe I'm outdated in thinking this, but because I'm a young black woman and don't see very many being the lead in a film, I have this fear: 'Will I be working?'

I was maybe one of two black kids in the drama department. It was, 'Well, you can't play this role because that guy has a white girlfriend or a white cousin or whatever.'

Hollywood's racist.

We're all complaining about diversity in Hollywood, but we've got to address the colorism within the black community of Hollywood first.

People just can't wrap their heads around two young black women in a major production.

The thing that disturbs me the most, being in England, is that on the screen we don't see very many of us - there aren't very many black girls. They don't make the roles for us, or they don't see us in those roles.

Any comedic roles that I've gone out for usually end up going to a white woman or a gay man instead.

I've been working almost 20 years, and I think I've worked with maybe one black director of photography in that time. Maybe two women directors or DPs. Maybe. And I've done a lot of TV. That's a lot of people I've worked with.