A Quote by Jorja Smith

My dad will always criticize me. He doesn't care if it hurts my feelings. If I start acting a certain way, he would be like, 'Who do you think you are?' So many people can tell me, 'You're amazing,' but I don't think it. I'm really hard on myself.
So many people can tell me, 'You're amazing,' rather, but I don't think it. You know, so, I don't go around thinking this. I'm really hard on myself. I think that's quite good.
I'm not really sure if I have anything that inspires me. I think what goes into my work is everything beforehand that I do with my dad. He teaches me acting, and I think maybe without him it would be pretty hard. I started acting for fun, really, because my dad's an actor and my sister's an actor, so I started doing it and it was normal. But it got places really fast, and I started doing feature film auditions and stuff.
A lot of people think that they are really cool because they don't outline. In my writing group, they would say, "I will never outline. I let the characters take me." C'mon, man - I outline the story, but it's only like one page. It's a list of possible reversals in the story, like things where everything will just change because of this certain reveal or this certain action. Then I start really digging into the character because, to me, I don't care what the story is.
In a certain way, acting is an extension of myself. What I really am, I am not able to put on paper. Everything is intuitive. The real me hasn't been seen yet and I don't think it ever will be. I'm always changing!
I'm in awe of actors, I think they're amazing because, I don't think I can even play me in anything. I'm really impressed when you see people like Chris Ramsey, John Bishop and Jason Cook. Just taking up comedy acting, let alone serious acting, terrifies me to the core.
When I get nervous, I think about my dad, who would always tell me, 'When you're nervous, it means you care.' So I embrace it. That reminds me I'm ready.
So when it comes to being a role model to women, I think it's because of the way that I feel about myself, and the way that I treat myself. I am a woman, I treat myself with respect and I love myself, and I think that if I'm holding myself to a certain esteem and keeping it real with myself, then that's going to translate to people like me.
I remember playing with some friends and being aware that I was acting as I was playing with them - I would think of a character and pretend to be someone else. My parents also took me to ballet school, and there I think I was able to start communicating those feelings or emotions - I danced for so many years.
It's hard for me to believe sometimes that my three kids never met my dad. Because one of the things - one of the real blessings to me is that while my dad left this Earth when I was in my 20s, he's just as much a part of, of my life now than he was then, in terms of I often think of my dad. I think of what my dad might do in a certain situation. And so he continues to be, you know, my hero, my role model.
Predictions are preposterous. What usually happens is that people tell you that what they'd like to see happen instead of what they really think will happen. There are so many variations and possibilities that there's no way to ever really know for certain.
I don't think acting is addictive. If I stopped acting tomorrow, I really wouldn't care. If you told me that I would have to sell real estate in New York City to look after my family, that would be fine with me.
Any actress will tell you - it's really hard. If you're not an A-list Hollywood movie star, if you're in the middle, there are people who assume you wouldn't do certain things without even asking you, when actually you probably would. And there are people who always think you are busy doing something else.
I think sometimes when people get older they start to limit themselves and think that if they wanted to start singing or they wanted to start playing guitar or if they wanted to, I don't know...become an archeologist - whatever it is, they think they just can't do it anymore because they've hit a certain age and I just think that's like putting yourself in jail. I realised a couple of years ago that the more that I did and made things and created things that I could love; it helped me to realise that I was actually loving myself and what came out of me.
I always think of the character as being me. But me wearing a 'coat', which may be a different way of speaking, moving or regarding other people. To me, acting is pretending, just like kids playing, only you pretend as if it were really, really real.
I think it's unhealthy to listen to what people say. My dad used to always say, "Don't believe in your own hype!" I was confused at the time: "Dad, there is no hype on me." But now I understand what he was saying. If someone says, "I think you're amazing" and someone says, "I think you're awful," I would like to have the same reaction to both, to be confident and calm enough to be able to take both of those and not be affected by either.
I guess my main worry is that people will start hating what I hate about myself. I worry that everyone will think I am really annoying and just want me to shut up. Which would make so much sense because I annoy myself... I guess I want people to know that if they are annoyed with me, I get it, it's totally cool. Please forgive me.
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