Sayed Badreya Quotes

Personally, I've always had to face casting directors or producers saying, 'You're right for the part, but nahh, you're not quite what we're looking for.'

A lot of times in Hollywood, when casting directors find out you're of Middle Eastern descent, they go, 'Oh, you're Iranian? Great. Can you say, 'I will kill you in the name of Allah?'' I could say that, but what if I were to say, 'Hello, I'm your doctor.'

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.

Some people have said that I haven't got the parts I should've got because of the way I look.

No, the type-casting didn't happen until after Star Trek. I don't think that you get typecast until you've been cast!

People used to feel oddly empowered to tell me all the reasons I couldn't win. Because I was a woman. Because I was a lesbian. Because I was from the West Side of Manhattan.

A Latino actor can't play this and a Latino actor can't play that because they're Latino.

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.

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

I was sick and tired of being an English actor who did a lot of American movies because I was cheap and good.

Yes, I'm blonde. When I started as an actor, because of the accent and my body and my personality, it was not what the stereotype of the Latina woman in Hollywood is, so they didn't know where to put me. The blond hair wasn't matching. The moment I put my hair dark, it was better for my work.

So one day, in a fit of trying to do something different, I just dyed my hair dark brown and got my first role a week later, after which I thought: 'People are closed-minded, man! Like a different hair colour changes everything!'

I definitely think that typecasting is something that happens all the time.

Show business always tries to stereotype you, so that is something you have to fight against no matter who you are. A lot of actors who are of a minority background complain that they only get stereotyped roles, and they are 100 percent correct. However, it's also true that, no matter who you are, you get typecast as well.

Turns out typecasting is a real thing.

I'm fighting the label of 'Black' actress simply because it's very limiting in people's eyes, especially people who are making movies.

I was too Jewish for 'Flashdance.'

Hollywood likes to put actors in boxes, and it likes to put Asian actors in really small boxes.

I go into every film not just wanting to play the hot girl in the movie. It kills me.

This practice of skinny actresses donning fat suits is essentially the new and acceptable blackface in Hollywood.

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'm all about the crossover. The role doesn't necessarily have to be white or Latina or black. It could be anything. But it's hard in Hollywood, because sometimes it's all about the box office. Or all about looks and things like that. It's not about the story that they have to tell.

If you're going to be born ugly and be an actor - the least they can do is let you play Lincoln.

The studios gotta start making more stuff where black folks get quality stuff. But I can't trip about that because I've been making movies for 35 years, and I've played everything from an old lady to a donkey, so I can't be on here talking about, 'They don't give us enough roles' and diversity.

I know a lot of brown actors who play terrorists because they're physically intimidating. For me, it was like, 'O.K., you'll be the nerd.' So I've played the nerd. I've played food-delivery guys. But I always tried to find something in the characters so that they weren't just defined by what they looked like.