Stereotype Pressure Quotes

I don't want to have to be like a Scarlett Johansson - who I have nothing against - but I don't want to have to go on talk shows and pull out every SAT word I've ever learned to prove, like, 'Take me seriously, I am intelligent, I can speak.'

It's an honor to be the only woman in the room a lot of times, but I wish I weren't the only woman in the room. I still have to think in a calculated way about how to speak and what to speak about.

People wanted me to become this cliched Keith Richards, Iggy Pop character. I wasn't expected to marry a beautiful wife and have kids.

When you're a girl, you have to be everything, You have to be dope at what you do, but you have to be super sweet, and you have to be sexy, and you have to be this and you have to be that and you have to be nice, and you have to - it's like, I can't be all of those things at once. I'm a human being.

I've been told that I wasn't Latino enough, which was code for 'street' enough.

I feel a lot of pressure when I'm writing because I know, you know, if they looked at a synopsis of the book, what they read could only confirm all the stereotypes that they have about us and about people like us.

When you're from New York, people take a second look at you. In Virginia, the other players always asked about the fast life we live. They want to know about the crime. As a player, they expect you to be able to do things that excite a crowd. And they always want to beat you. You're the New Yorker.

I don’t want to have to be like a Scarlett Johansson – who I have nothing against, but I don’t want to have to go on talk shows and pull out every single SAT word I’ve every learned to prove, like, ‘Take me seriously, I am intelligent, I can speak.’ I don’t want to have to do that. I resent having to prove that I’m not a retard – but I do. And part of it is my own fault.

When you're the only Asian in the room, the last thing you want to do is to point out you're Asian. And be the Asian dude.

Sometimes, when you are one of only a couple of girls in an engineering class, you feel like you are representing women in general. That is a large burden to bear.

Everybody wants me to be the (guy) who's (sleeping with) every celebrity woman in the industry. Everybody wants me to be this (guy) in the club, popping 17 bottles just because. Everybody wants me to be Diddy, and that's not me.

I don't think you have to be this macho man all the time, just because you play sport.

Black fathers are often disappointed if their sons aren't good at sports. Not excelling at sports as a black boy meant not being cool - even weirder, it meant not really being black.

There's a lot of pressure to look good, have the gun, know what you're doing and be one of the boys. I was like, "I don't want to be one of the boys. I want to be a doctor. I want to be cerebral. I want to sit back and just use something else. I don't want to do the stunts. Let the boys do that. I'm just going to be the doctor who's about taking care of other people."

A female professional athlete has to have the whole package, as opposed to a guy who can just be good at sport. You have to have a job or go to uni or do three sports instead of one, you have to be a standout.

It felt when I was growing up that sport was, like, the only thing you should do... if you do music, you're really different and a bit weird.

In the end, I realized that I just didn't like acting enough to put up with the stereotype and I didn't really think I was good enough to transcend it.

I never let my gender define me but in my whole driving career I only ever did one interview not being asked about being a female.

There is no added pressure to play a Swede.

I love being Jewish; I have no problem with it at all. But it did become like a scar, with all these people saying you don't look it.

Some people wanted me to be the Latino quarterback. Some people wanted me to be the USC quarterback who happens to be Latino.

People are like, "Oh, I want to make your eyes almond." I don't have almond eyes! Why are you trying to change my eye shape?

If you can believe it, Hollywood wanted to change my birthdate. I was born after Valentine's Day, so they wanted to change it to February 14. A Latin lover should be born on Valentine's Day. I said no.

I don't think people understand the model-minority stereotype is negative. You are boxed in. You have to untangle that to find your own path.

I was incredibly nervous about doing a period drama. I thought that to play period, you had to be English-looking and blonde and very well spoken, and have gone to drama school.