Aunjanue Ellis Quotes

There aren't a lot of roles for sleepy-eyed black dudes.

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

Women's lives get more interesting the older they get. For some reason, when you hit 35, it turns into a grey area filmically. There's not much more until you start playing grannies. I'm not ready for that. I'm just naffed off that, between 35 and 50, there aren't better things about.

I was reading through endless junk scripts that were being sent my way. Typically the roles were to play his wife or his girlfriend - leading roles for women were few and far between.

After Halle Berry does her films and Queen Latifah does her films, it's left to all the black, Latino and Asian actresses to fight over a couple of roles. I opted for some TV. There's just not a ton of work in film.

So now I feel I'm lucky in the respect that I can sort of pick a little more carefully, which is tricky because as a black actress, there aren't that many roles to pick from.

Cameras love pretty girls and craggy, old character men more than they can take craggy, old character women. But that's what's always happened. Work out how you can fit into it, and make that work. There are never going to be millions of parts for older actresses because there never were.

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 read so many scripts, and it's not really exciting to just be the girlfriend.

For a woman, there is a complete dearth of roles to do. Abroad, you really have good roles, and by good roles, I don't mean the film has to be women oriented. I wouldn't mind playing a well-written, small role.

Not all the roles that I've gotten were stereotypical, but in Korea, especially for TV, it's a bit limited for women in their twenties and thirties. There aren't enough female roles.

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 you do a film with somebody who's my age - which is always the role of a mother or a grandmother - despite of well-defined characters, you don't get to play a very large part as the main leads get prominence.

There aren't enough meaty roles for actresses. Also, most actresses aren't ready to take risks.

Someone asked if I wanted to be the first female Bond, and I was saying that I don't think we necessarily need that whole conversation.

American film isn't just film and glamor and fame and the lives of people who are fortunate financially. Those aren't the only stories in this vast nation. That's my mandate.

In an industry still dominated by men, working with a female director on an episode written by a woman, helmed by a female showrunner, all while doing scenes with your screen sister is like getting to see the big five at the wild animal park. It's awesome.

After 'Champion,' I got like 20,000 psychopath roles! And they wanted me to strip and show my body in every film. But I have tried to balance my roles.

We heroines don't get good roles.

I hate stereotypical roles.

There are so many talented actresses in Korea right now, but they're not seen because there aren't roles in which they can show their talents.

For any female actor, the age between 35 to 45 is treacherous. Filmmakers tell me, I am at that awkward age. No parts are written for women in this age bracket, while men at that age flourish and have great careers.

I want to break the stereotype that when an actress becomes a mother, she can only do certain type of roles.

I think if more women had been directing when I was a child, I probably would have gone for directing first. But, as a child, all I wanted to do was make movies.

I am very keen to do a film that's female-led.