“Racism kills people. It kills people!”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“Racism is like a horror movie. Black kids die because of racism. I don’t know what’s more horrifying than that.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I find it hard to watch a lot of the kind of things I’m doing before doing it. I don’t think it’s helpful for me. It makes me too aware.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“The beauty of any artwork is that it becomes the person that’s watching it: What do you take out of it?”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“Big up Samuel L. Jackson, because here’s a guy who has broken down doors.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I think that’s all you do as an actor. You give ingredients for the edit, and the edit’s the stew, and they try to make a meal out of it. That’s all you are. You just throw things in. This is an idea, this is an idea.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I think the traditional stereotypes are loaded in institutional racism.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“What’s great about ‘Skins’ is that the characters are exactly like people around you.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“If I was at school and one of my friends said something funny, I’d write it down in a notebook and take it to the writers meetings. I never told my friends about it. I just thought I could incorporate stuff that was true to life.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“Writing can be really lonely, and I find that bit difficult. I’d rather be around my people, getting ideas.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“When work ends, I’d rather just be seen as Daniel – normal.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I go to music festivals, and people want to talk to me about racism. I’m like, ‘Bro, I’m trying to have fun!’”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I feel very appreciative of my mum, my girl, my family, my friends.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“Everything men do is for women.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“Usually I do a job, and, like, two weeks later, it disappears and is replaced with something else, but ‘Get Out’ kept growing and growing and growing, and it keeps taking me to rooms I could never get in before.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I learned so much on ‘Sicario’ and working with that group of actors, where there was the audacity, the confidence, to do nothing.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“Life ain’t a drama. And life isn’t just a comedy. Life is sometimes horrifying. Life is science-fiction. There are all elements and faculties that we navigate, so I just expect a script to reflect that. As long as it’s truthful. I think genre-bending is just being honest.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“Loads of stuff that I’ve done has always had a hint of comedy. I did this show called ‘Psychoville’ that’s a horror-comedy. Because I just think that’s what life’s like.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I feel like racism’s more pronounced in America.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“’Sicario’ was a lot of improvisation.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I think the ‘sunken place’ – that term is what I hear when I’m just casually living my life. People say it around me. Not because they’re around me; they’re saying it because it articulated a state of mind. Lil Wayne’s rapped about it.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I did a play, back in the day, called ‘Sucker Punch,’ and it meant so much for me. I was 21. And I went, ‘I just want to do work like that.’ Stuff I believe in. And when I have compromised, I’ve never really felt good about it.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“Having something that makes money changes everything. I’m from England, and it’s very much about credibility there. And yeah, it is about that. But the money can change things. And so you understand it’s a business.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“Nas is such a touchstone in my world.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“A lot of times, the people who have the confidence to say, ‘I don’t know what the rules are, so I’m just going to do what I want,’ are the most exciting people.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“Donae’o is too cold; he’s been dropping bangers since 2000.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“Giggs is the realest.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“Whenever I’m in a film that’s from a perspective that is dominant within western culture… I’m always trying to prove myself. When it’s from a black perspective, I don’t have to – they get it.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I love being black.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“All I’m doing is being in films that I would watch if I wasn’t in this industry.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“What I find really exciting is stories from a different viewpoint.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I’m dark-skinned. When I’m around black people, I’m made to feel ‘other’ because I’m dark-skinned. I’ve had to wrestle with that, with people going, ‘You’re too black.’ Then I come to America, and they say, ‘You’re not black enough.’”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I resent that I have to prove that I’m black.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I have to show off my struggle so that people accept that I’m black. No matter that every single room I go to, I’m usually the darkest person there… I kind of resent that mentality. I’m just an individual.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“People are decisions and actions.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I know what it means to be stopped by police. I’ve been stopped by police a lot.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I’ve been to so many parties in England and in America that’s exactly like that, where you’re kind of, like, seen as Other. When you’re just living your life, and you have to adopt the Other in order to understand and navigate the society.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“In the real world, there’s probably nothing more horrifying than racism. Living racism is a horrifying experience. And then, having to normalize it and internalize it.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I listened to this book, ‘The Beauty Myth,’ about how beauty standards are messing with women in Western society, and I was like, ‘I don’t know this.’ I have no idea, and I don’t pretend to, but now I’m more aware of it because I’ve engaged on that frequency.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I am definitely not a household face, and I don’t expect to be one.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I don’t think you become a name with just one job.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“Being young, working class, and black, everything you do is policed. If someone hits you and you hit back, you are aggressive. If you cry, you are weak. You are kind of always pretending to be something.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I just want to tell black stories.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I go to Uganda, I can’t speak the language. In India, I’m black. In the black community, I’m dark-skinned. In America, I’m British.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“Even people who say that black people are minorities, there are a billion black people in the world. A billion white people. What part of that is a minority? If you separate yourself, then maybe. But I see black people as one man. When I see people beaten on the streets of America, that hurts me. I feel that.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“’Skins’ was like our uni. I’m tight with everyone from ‘Skins’ because we had that special experience together.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“My experience growing up in London and growing up in a working class background is that when people are down and out, that’s when they’re probably the funniest. They have to be. That’s what they do to cope, to find joy, ’cause they don’t feel the joy inside. Or they use humor to keep people out.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“’A Prophet’ is one of my favorite films of all time.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I wrote my first play when I was nine. It was performed at Hampstead Theatre.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“Some black women hug me and walk away. A lot of black men talk about dating white women and how they’ve been there, too. People open up about their racial experiences. I feel like I’m a walking therapy session. It’s quite intense. But it means a lot to people.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“When you’re a young black man, you’re not allowed to be emotional. One of the reasons I act is people pay me to be emotional.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I hope people listen to black people more. You’d be surprised how little people listen to black people when it comes to racial issues. It’s weird.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“’Sucker Punch’ was so demanding, it scared me a bit.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I love comedy. I don’t think there’s enough comedy on stage.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I didn’t take writing seriously at first – I didn’t think I could do it. When I did, I fell in love with it. But writing is very lonely.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“’The Fades’ is its own world. If you try and link it to some religion, you have people going, ‘Oh, that’s not right,’ with their Bible open. Let’s just chuck some imagination at it.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“Really, I have no idea how I’m perceived in the industry.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“There’s a lot of black men running around with crazy trauma scars, and they should be going to therapy. They should be sitting down and talking to people. But they can’t. If you’ve got the armor of being a man, and the armor of being a black man, that hyper-masculine thing can make those scars deeper.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“What you want to do is make people talk, start a conversation.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“Racism isn’t just in America… Alienation is felt worldwide in different capacities.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I think diverse stories are just stories. I don’t think ‘diverse’ is an add-on package. Things that are not diverse are weird because that’s not accurate.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I like three-dimensional characters – it’s just more interesting when you get on set.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I think the word ‘diverse’ is a cancerous word because it’s life. It’s a PC way of saying ‘non-white,’ and it ultimately suggests that white is the standard.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I have to own the fact that I’m a black man – that’s why I did ‘Black Panther’ and ‘Widows’ because if I play the industry game, I lose.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“’Diverse’ shouldn’t be an actionable thing – it should just be.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“A lot of time, people enter the most depressing situations, and they are the funniest people on Earth, because they have to be. It’s a coping mechanism.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“I just like playing guys, normal dudes. That’s the stuff that I really enjoy watching: when it feels grounded.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“Sometimes I’ll work in America, sometimes I’ll work in England. What’s important is fulfilment. I just want to tell stories.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“When I need a reality check, I call my mum.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“This industry’s hard. The world is hard. Being young and black is tough.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
“’Get Out’ was born out of the genius mind of Jordan Peele, to whom I will be forever grateful for believing in me and allowing me to help him tell a story so dear to him.”
― Daniel Kaluuya
Leave a Reply