Top 99 Quotes & Sayings by Zawe Ashton
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an English actress Zawe Ashton.
Last updated on April 14, 2025.
I'm a card-carrying existentialist.
I don't want to be 'de-ethnicised.' I hate it when people say, 'Oh I don't even think of you as a woman,' or, 'I don't even think of you as a black woman.' Well what do you think of me as then? A loaf of bread?
I had a meeting a while back with a big group of women - actors and producers and writers - who are all ethnic minorities and we just aired what we thought was happening and why, and someone said that, as a black or mixed race actress, you feel like you're renting space instead of carving out a career. But I'm just going to get on with it.
Often when you're working on dark material, the atmosphere is fun.
Living with the notion that you might never have a permanent spot in the world is really quite a powerful metaphor.
My dad constantly tells me I should calm down, but I feel so sad when I see places I've known since I was a child closing. I burst out crying when a local pharmacy closed the other day; it's just going to become a shop that nobody has much of a need for. But I am trying to move with the times.
I love the visual medium of film and TV. I love the science of it, working with the sound and the lighting and every aspect.
Dreams of a Life' and 'Fresh Meat' have left me on such a high. I'm not complaining but I'm not complacent either.
Each project you do demands a different diet in a way. Because there's so much tension in 'Betrayal,' so much holding of breath and emotion, I can't get too happy in my food choices or I can't get alert enough.
For me, the banner that I want to wave in terms of giving a jump start to writers of any gender is just to make female protagonists as complex as their male counterparts.
I think there's still a feeling within society, entertainment aside, that women are less funny than men.
My mum took me to see 'The Wizard of Oz' when I was about three and I was blown away.
I'm not really sure what defines 'success in the real world' to be honest! It's so objective once you graduate, some people work, some people start families, some go looking for themselves up mountains in Peru.
Relief is not a word that ever enters my mind, about anything.
I'm training in martial arts. It's a whole new world for me and I'm loving it. I do that or hot yoga; I have to do some kind of exercise.
Some people shun the idea of role models but I think it's one of the most important things people have in life - role models, to look up to.
I'm doing a play at Trafalgar Studios with The Jamie Lloyd Company - 'The Maids' by Jean Genet with Uzo Aduba and Laura Charmichael, directed by Jamie Lloyd. It's one of my favourite plays by one of my favourite playwrights.
I prefer to avoid the phrase 'strong women' when talking about female characters and the lack thereof or the need therefore, because it's not about being strong, it's also about being vulnerable, funny etc.
It's such a difficult thing for women, especially, to admit when we're not coping, because we're supposed to be all right with all the different roles we're born with and are piled on us later on.
I hate talking about class, but the truth is as an actor you're only going to be doing some really great work if you can afford to be out of work and take the good stuff. If you can't, you're going to be treading quite a different path.
What sometimes annoys me about the arts is increasingly that we have to put real people on screen or stage.
In the future, the idea would be to create work for myself, as a way to work up into my 80s if nothing else. But also, I want to cast my friends in things or people I saw who weren't working and I'd be like, 'Why aren't you working, I don't understand - I'll write you a role in something.'
The widespread shame of motherhood is criminal, and it needs to stop. The world can never improve if you disrespect the people that bring life.
When I'm doing a play like 'Betrayal,' I have to be careful not to get stimulation overload.
If I'm wearing the wrong clothes I can't think. It sounds so weird but it just has to be the right fabrics and like the right feeling on my body.
My drama teacher when I was a kid called me 'Zawe the activist' and I had no idea why. Now I've got older I can see why she always saw that in me.
I always play outsiders. I think I'm carrying a lot of those characters and I wonder if I play them because those characters need an extra element of thought to bring them to life.
I hate using the word 'dark' for things that are negative.
The chasm between independent film and commercial film is now so wide. You either have to be super-famous and get a first-time director or writer's indie script off the ground, or you're a newcomer and go and put a cape on for four years.
I got into a habit really early about not talking about work, ever.
I didn't grow up with a lot of role models necessarily when I started out - there weren't many people who looked like me on TV. Not in England.
I'm just coming to terms with the fact that I will always do lots of different things and I can't really stay in one place too long.
Todd Solondz is a film maker I've always loved because of how he balances darkness, humour and surrealism in his films.
I have no idea how to ever sell myself in a snazzy way.
I hate when there's a band that you've loved and you go and see them and it's like only the really new experimental stuff from the current album.
I just always play these really extreme characters - they've all come with parental guidance stickers on them.
I do consider myself an artist.
As a director I would love to work with Marion Cotillard. She's so magical.
The first film I ushered was Lynne Ramsay's 'Morvern Callar.' I started at 18. Best job in the world. Blockbusters, indie films, classic matinees.
I don't think there's a part that I've played or something I've written or directed that hasn't smacked of 'The Wizard Of Oz.' It's the film all roads lead to for me.
As a woman, you do have a sense that if you can do other things, then you should. If you feel, mmm, the roles are getting a little repetitive, and you know you can write, then you should write a different role.
Secondary school was a lot harder. That was probably my hardest time. Some of the girls were really nasty. I had to move schools because of the bullying there.
I plan on having a long career. I don't want to burn out.
When you're an actor, wealth is about choice.
A lobster roll and a few glasses of fizz and I'm happy.
If there's one person I looked up to obsessively, it was Will Smith. There wasn't anyone who looked like me on TV in England. 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' was my touchstone.
I wanted to quit acting and as soon as I decided that, the call for 'Velvet Buzzsaw' came through.
I was very fortunate to have had three years on 'Fresh Meat,' before working on 'Not Safe for Work.' Comedy drama is a very hard genre to nail so I was very glad to have had some practice.
Patsy Ferran in Tennessee Williams' 'Summer and Smoke'-I thought that was just one of the most phenomenal performances I've seen from a young woman.
I think anyone who has been bullied finds it life-affirming if you live to tell the tale. I just wish someone told me at school that there's this weird average whereby if you're not popular at school you will become popular later.
If you're looking for reps, write letters that are short and professional. Make sure you have a really great reel of yourself. If there are friends you know who are making short films, do them - it's all material for your reel.
My real life memory of leaving Uni is an overwhelming excitement to be going home but also a weird numbness.
When you get to do things you love with every fiber of your being, it's a different experience.
I do think about moving out of London a lot, whether that's L.A., whether that's Margate with half of the other Hackneyites.
Don't worry if you're interesting enough or beautiful enough or any of the 'enoughs.'
For me, food is all about nostalgia.
We live in a capitalist society and if we're talking about the people at the bottom of the food chain, it's women of colour.
One of the first plays I ever did was at the Royal Court Theatre in London; it was the first play I got after drama school.
I think I've always felt that I want to do a very specific type of work and I've made informed decisions. You know, hopefully be part of a quiet movement or revolution.
Anyone who's been an usher knows it's a training in resilience. But you get such a film education. And the popcorn's free.
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