A Quote by Riz Ahmed

I'm an actor. Since I was a teenager, I have had to play different characters, negotiating the cultural expectations of a Pakistani family, Brit-Asian rudeboy culture, and a scholarship to private school. The fluidity of my own personal identity on any given day was further compounded by the changing labels assigned to Asians in general.

Riz Ahmed

Quote Topics

Actor Any Asian Asians Assigned Changing Characters Cultural Culture Day Different Different Characters Expectations Family Fluidity Further General Given Had Identity Labels My Own Negotiating Own Pakistani Personal Personal Identity Play Private Private School Scholarship School Since Teenager

Quote Author

Riz Ahmed
British - Musician
Born: December 1, 1982

I believe that we are still hovering around the realm of Asians playing all types of Asians. I do not see that changing any time soon just because there is a limited pool of Asian actors.

Steven Yeun

As a community, we're fighting for Asians to play Asian roles. And then there's the other battle, which is Asian Americans playing roles that aren't written for Asians, and I think that's something that completely should happen; Why can't an Asian American male just play a leading cop figure... or the Matt Damon roles?

Ross Butler

Ever since I was a child, I always had insecurity or suspicions about my own personal identity. That's why I started going to a lot of movie theaters, because I felt more comfortable there than at school. Now, the search for a personal identity is becoming a common topic for young Japanese people, and it's a big theme in their own lives. But it's been a theme in my life, as well, ever since I was young.

Mamoru Oshii

It's called 'Crazy Rich Asians,' but it's really not about crazy rich Asians. It's about Rachel Chu finding her identity and finding her self-worth through this journey back into her culture. Which, for me as a filmmaker, exploring my cultural identity is the scariest thing.

Jon M. Chu

Since the main problem that American, the Afro- Americans have is a lack of cultural identity. It is necessary to teach [people] that they had some type of identity, culture, civilization before they were brought here.

Malcolm X

Understand, my own politics aren't necessarily interchangeable with what any of my characters believe. You could take each of the characters in On the Ropes, and I'd probably be in sympathy with a different one on any given day, depending on what's going on in the world.

James Vance

When I decided that I might want to do acting for a living - I don't know where it really came from, since there was no school play or any of that - my mom gave me her blessing. I had to get a scholarship - that was the only way I could have gone to drama school.

Gary Oldman

I'm a proud Londoner, a Brit, European, of Pakistani heritage, a Muslim - we all have multiple layers of identity - that's what makes us who we are.

Sadiq Khan

Ever since I left the Brit school I've been so protected. I had a woman to do my hair and makeup every day throughout my 20s.

Katie Melua

Doing a film with somebody who's from a different country or culture than you is very fulfilling because they bring with them different insights, experiences, cultural norms, and expectations. All of those things can sort of broaden your own understanding of things or provide a different perspective.

Ryan Eggold

The people who are competing business-wise out there want what other successful labels and artists have. I don't want what they have; I want my own path, my own sound, my own identity. Record labels care nothing about identity or artistic freedom, they want good business.

Joe Nichols

Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai, who is 17, has become the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize. So a Pakistani teenager literally can change the world, while American teenagers literally can't even.

Colin Jost

As an actor of color, I was overlooked at every possible opportunity. I was given roles that were almost not roles. It was, like, Scared Asian Guy. Whether I was a scared Asian guy in front of a computer or a scared Asian guy getting robbed in the grocery store, I always played these pathetic, low-status characters.

Simu Liu

Asian people have a unique way about them and a different sense of beauty. It's exotic to me. I like they way Asians project their feelings. There's a hardness to the culture, but at the same time there's a delicateness.

Paz Vega

The 'Ms. Marvel' mantle has passed to 'Kamala Khan,' a high school student from Jersey City who struggles to reconcile being an American teenager with the conservative customs of her Pakistani Muslim family.