Ruth Negga Quotes

I have blonde hair and blue eyes, and whenever I tell people I'm Greek, they don't believe me.

I'm a little bit of everything. Sometimes people think I'm not Puerto Rican, because my name doesn't sound Spanish.

I've often gone to start a film only to find the producers surprised to discover that I'm American.

I'm not a massive reader of online comments but I come across the odd comment where people still question if I'm English. I find that so silly.

Well, I'm Czech, but Polish, Czech, no matter, it's my name.

I am Chinese - it doesn't matter what other people say.

Europe has been in my bones.

I'm 100 percent Irish by birth, grew up Italian, and yet I constantly get cast as playing Jewish.

Sometimes stereotyping happens not because of any nefarious reasons but rather because people don't know who you are or where you come from, so they go for the broad strokes about you, your culture, your faith, all that.

I went to prep school, Eton and Oxford. When people hear that, they think they know you, and you think: 'No, you don't.'

I'll be a Quebecker-Canadian. I'm from Quebec, and every time I go to a country, I say that. It's my roots, my origins, and it's the most important thing to me.

I am always asked, 'You grew up in Africa?' Every time I introduce a film, or I'm interviewed, 'You grew up in Africa?'

My husband is actually Italian-American, and he thought I was Italian when he first met me.

I have to expend an awful lot of energy actively undoing the impact of my name. Understandably, people assume that I have at least some connection to Iran. The truth is that I don't. I have very little knowledge about the culture, the language, the history. I've never been to Iran. I've never even been inside a mosque.

Everyone in America thinks I'm American - and everyone in England seems to think I'm American.

In Mexico they think I'm Mexican. In Italy they think I'm Italian.

A lot people who hear that 'Go New York Go' assume that I must be black.

From my situation as an African American person in the U.S., people may look at me and think a certain thing without getting to know me. I'm of Nigerian and Caribbean heritage. I went to Yale. What you see is not what you think you're getting.

With cab drivers, I always say I'm from Brazil. I don't say I'm from Israel. It's happened more than once that someone is blaming me for the government's policy. And I say, 'Listen, I live here. I'm a musician. I don't call the shots.'

We have to redefine what we mean when we say, 'Who are your people?' 'Where are you from?'

I'm very attached to my roots, but I feel Italian more than anything else.

I meet people and a lot of times, instead of saying, "Are you from the East Coast?" people just go, "you're from the East Coast, right?", having no reason to have known that. I don't know what that is. Maybe it's just that I'm Jewish.

I'm from L.A., but everyone thinks that I'm British.

I'm certainly proud to be Cuban American, and it's a fantastic opportunity for anybody - regardless of their ethnicity or nationality. It does carry a measure or pride to know where you're from and to know what your roots are.

I always worked mostly in Quebec. I never thought of the States, somehow. I don't know - I don't have blue eyes or blond hair. I thought I didn't fit with the stereotype of America.