John Boyega Quotes

Tonight we celebrate Hollywood's best and whitest, sorry... brightest.

The Academy Awards are passed out on Sunday. It's voted by members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Or as I call them, 50 shades of white.

It is not easy to get parts in mainstream films for most people of color. Hollywood and British writers are not writing parts for us, or the directors are not interested in casting us in parts that are color-blind.

I always say it's hard to cast an African-American film sometimes because those kinds of actors just aren't out there.

I imagine it was much different in the 1970s. That was the Renaissance for black actors, albeit in blaxploitation movies. There was a much greater preponderance of work then than there is now.

It'd be nice if Asian actors could be perceived as profitable, which is the bottom line. We're perceived as not mattering much fiscally.

Hollywood isn't ready for an Indian leading man.

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.

Fat noses have no place in the Hindi film industry. But it is not so in the West - otherwise, Anthony Quinn would have never been an actor.

I will be the first black James Bond.

I have been so great in boxing they had to create an image like Rocky, a white image on the screen, to counteract my image in the ring. America has to have its white images, no matter where it gets them. Jesus, Wonder Woman, Tarzan and Rocky.

I've always been asked the question of, 'Do you feel like it's getting better over the years for Asian representation in Hollywood?' and I have always said, 'Well, it's better than it has been, but we have a long way to go.'

The idea that American producers and directors are choosing black British talent to save themselves a buck or two is ridiculous - it's because we're damn good.

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 studios aren't lining up to make films about black protagonists, black people being autonomous and independent.

If you go to a big publishing house, editorial aside, it's completely white.

A black actor is perfect for 'Kojak.'

People in Hollywood go home to their wives and children who look like they do. If you're in that position, your natural thought pattern is sometimes to think, 'Superman, oh yeah he's white.' You can't get mad at somebody for doing that. It's the world they live in and for some, they only live in that bubble.

You see all these movies of white men saving the world all the time.

People in Hollywood defer to what they know, which is a white lead, particularly in romantic comedies.

For the most part, it's straight white men running these labels and publishing companies.

Films with predominantly white casts can come in any form, tell any story, big or small. For black films, you have the light, fluffy rom-coms or 'Madea' movies, and then you have the black-torture awards movie.

The 'New York Times' is not reviewing books by non-white people.

I get it - there are very few black female actresses who have been given chances.

The whites have always had the say in America. White people made Jesus white, angels white, the Last Supper white. If I threaten you, I'm blackmailing you. A black cat is bad luck. If you're put out of a club, you're blackballed. Angel's-food cake is white; devil's-food cake is black. Good guys in cowboy movies wear white hats. The bad guys always wore black hats.