Top 41 Quotes & Sayings by Stephan James

I enjoy challenging perspective - challenging ideas of what it means to be a black man.

When we started making 'Selma,' the Black Lives Matter movement didn't exist. The parallels between Martin Luther King staging these marches, suffering police brutality... we weren't even aware when making the film that these sorts of things would start to happen again in 2015.

I'm from Toronto, so I listen to a lot of Toronto artists.

I care a lot about who I'm working with as directors and other actors.

I've always been pretty reserved, but after taking drama classes in middle school to get more comfortable performing in front of people, I thought I should try out for television.

My parents are from Jamaica, and I love reggae music.

When I first got the call from my manager asking if I'd ever heard of Jesse Owens, I recognized the name, looked him up, and was blown away by his story.

I've had some experience in track and field in school, but I did have to train to be able to play Jesse Owens - to be a runner, to be an Olympian.

I really appreciate Barry Jenkins as a filmmaker and the fact that he's always wanting to push the envelope and challenge perspective and make people uncomfortable in a way that doesn't seem like it's allowed anymore.

Growing up, I was always into sports - basketball and volleyball - but I wasn't really a runner.

I've loved Basquiat since I was 13. From his artwork to his interviews to the way he thought about things, I've always been excited by him.

I definitely have to make sure I have my Jamaican playlist whenever I go, and you've gotta listen to Popcaan. I really love his song 'Silence,' but the whole album, 'Forever,' is good. I love his melodies and flows. He just knows how to make good songs.

I'm black, yeah, but I'm just an actor, so everything I do doesn't have to be color-specific or specific to history. But I got to a point where a lot of people wanted to offer me period pieces, like that's the only thing I could do.

The best filmmakers have a very familial attitude in sort of embracing the set, beyond the cast, with the wardrobe, and the hair and makeup, and the props, just making everybody feel very familial.

While shooting 'Selma,' I would train on my off time with the assistant men's track and field coach at Georgia Tech.

The first time I sat in a theater and watched myself on a screen was an out-of-body experience. It blew my mind.

It's important to me for the world to see black men in different capacities - capacities in which they're probably not used to seeing them.

I feel like I've always been an actor.

Luckily enough, I've been able to work with Ava DuVernay, who was able to rally this large ensemble and get us all on the same page for 'Selma.'

I think I have an incredible group of people that I work with and people I'm inspired by and community I'm inspired by, and I just want to see us all win and continue to grow and flourish and do incredible things and tell stories in the way they've never been told. Take risks, be bold, and be smart.

When is not a good time to speak up for our vets and support them in any way that we can?

My mom used to buy us a whole lot of VHS tapes - we had boxes of them, hundreds of them. So we would just go through movies all the time.

I know I'm a black actor, but really, I'm an actor who happens to be black.

I want to continue to grow and evolve, and I want to help other people grow and evolve.

I got obsessed with impersonations: impersonating people that I knew - people, not famous people but people like my family. At first, it was just fun; it's always been just fun. But I sort of got to a point in maybe seventh or eighth grade where I started getting heavily involved in drama programs via programs in my high school.

Everything I do is just an opportunity to tell a great story.

We have to start creating more material that gives a platform for people of colour, for women, for old people and young people alike to be able to showcase their talent. It's much bigger than a black or white thing.

I really believe in speaking things into existence.

I've been a big fan of Barry Jenkins for a long time.

Sacrifice. I'd never been in a position where I was number one on the call sheet, and everything was in my lap. I worked 16 hour days, and I was just not the lead of any film, it was a film about Jesse Owens, one of the greatest heroes of the 20th century. It was a whole new type of responsibility. It was a big weight, and I wanted to do him justice, especially in reviving him after 80 years.

Jesse Owen was bigger than a black hero, he was an American hero. For me, I looked at it from that perspective. Through my research, I obviously learned a lot, much of which made me sad, upset, disappointed and even angry, regarding what Jesse had to go through. Not only was he a black man in America during an age of high racial tension and segregation, but he was also living in the middle of the Great Depression - it was very difficult times for him and his family.

I want to be a superhero, I want to be Spider-Man or Batman. Will you let me know if you have any connections? Let's make it happen.

The issue of racism happens all over the world. Granted, people - especially Americans - don't know the the Canadian culture. But if you look outside this country, it's a problem all around the planet.

I grew up on basketball, volleyball, that sort of thing. For me, track and field was a whole 'nother beast.

Jesse Owens had to be a very strong person. There were a lot of protests, but I think that he knew, despite the pressure on both sides, the pressure to go and the pressure not to go, he had to do it for himself. Unknowingly, he changed the world and broke so many barriers by doing so, by being a leader.

I realize the importance of retelling those stories is so that, one, we don't forget what our ancestors had to do so we can be where we are, and two, to just educate the newer generation. I'm being educated by all these films ['Race' and 'Selma'] and the things I've had the opportunity to be a part of, and kids even younger than me are being educated, too. It's important to make sure those stories never die.

I knew [Jesse Owens'] name, but I really didn't remember what it is he had done, so I felt like I had to get refreshed. So I read the script and I realized like, wow, this is an incredible human being. I told my manager, however I had to do it, let me see the director; I got to play him.

What I've learned about that word is context, where the world is coming from - in the era the film is set, it obviously is used derogatorily. In 'Selma,' it was the same sort of thing. Of course now, in music, it's used in many more ways, including ways that takes the sting out of it. It all depends on where and when it is used, and how you look at it. But again in 'Race,' it is intensely disrespectful.

You have such a big responsibility. This person is still alive. You would think that they think highly of themselves and their accomplishments and what they've done. You can only hope to bring justice to that.

John Lewis is such a remarkable human being. Literally, such a beautiful human being. I remember the first time I met him. We were in the middle of a scene and [Selma director] Ava DuVernay calls, "Cut," and then he literally just came in. He just came walking in.I just froze. I can't explain the feeling. Seeing somebody who was literally a living hero. He was a hero.

That was my goal in portraying Jesse Owens: bringing that level of humanity so people could understand who he was as a person.