Stephanie Beatriz Quotes

I was very surprised that for a while I could only get cast as straight. It was that way for a few years.

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.

I was told that if I wanted to be a leading man in Hollywood, I couldn't possibly be thought of as gay.

I'd be stupid not to take into consideration that there are certain things people will not consider me for because my name is Lopez. And I know I can do any kind of role. I don't want anybody to say, Oh, she can't pull this off. So those are barriers that you have to overcome.

Watching 'Girls,' it was really angering for me at first, because I really had spent decades hiding unlikable, unattractive Jewish girls in likable, attractive, non-Jewish actors and characters.

After that, I was offered lots of lesbian roles, but I didn't want them because I'd already played the best there was.

Most good roles are written for young men. We are fixated on youth. So however much people say there is nothing wrong with being bald, the reality is once the hair is gone, you might not get the parts.

An agent said he didn't know what to do with me, I wouldn't be able to play any parts but lesbians and aliens.

If you play a gay role, it sticks more than it does if an actor were to play a murderer or a psychopath.

I'm a little concerned I'm always going to be playing a black guy, you know what I'm saying?

Even now, there are young actors who want careers as romantic leading men, and the best thing is not to reveal you're gay.

If I only get to play Malaysian roles, there wouldn't be very many roles for me to play.

Usually, I'll be auditioning for the third lead, and there will be Latina actresses, Indian actresses, African American actresses because it will be like, 'Let's check off this box. We have our lead white girl, and we need an ethnic slot.'

I couldn't get roles as bad guys. They could see John Travolta as a gangster but not me, really. But, you know, that's just how things are.

We've all been watching stories about heterosexuals forever... As a gay kid, you are always having to translate. You are always having to pretend like you are one of the other characters. You're not seeing your life accurately reflected.

Since I am a turbaned Sardar, I can only play Sardar roles. Either that or producers should be willing to alter the script to accommodate my physical appearance. But I won't call this a restriction.

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.

That's the biggest thing I struggle with. We could never hope to represent every gay person in America. There will be people who will say, 'Well, my experience of being gay isn't like that,' to which I can only say, 'That's fine.'

I grew up in musicals, and if you looked like me and sounded like me, you were the character; you were never at the center of the story.

I am an African-American woman of dark skin tone, and there are very specific roles that are usually given to African-American women of a darker hue. Let's start with 'Once on This Island': peasant girl. Let's go to 'The Color Purple': young girl, beaten. Let's go to 'Ragtime': Her baby's taken.

I had a different agent after 'Hook,' and they were, like, 'We don't know where to go with you. It's like you've already gone to the top of what's out there for a young Asian actor.' No one had done anything higher profile than that. And I'm, like, 'OK, but I'm only 15.'

I was always asked to play roles where I was the contrasting or multicultural character. Sometimes that worked for me - often it didn't.

Being a black lesbian myself, I roll my eyes a little bit when I see black lesbian characters on shows where it's purely there for decoration. You can just hear it in the writers room... 'What if we make her a lesbian?'

I once lost a role because I was told I am fair. They were looking for a village woman who is darker.

The thing is to convince people that a part not written for a Latina woman - or maybe not even written for a woman at all - is a female part. You convince them you can do it.