What we really have to do is stop the adjective before the job title - whether it's 'black actor,' a 'gay actor' or anything actor.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The word actress has always seemed less a job description to me than a title.
When are we going to stop labeling everyone? How many times have I been referred to as 'out gay actor?' Do we say, 'out heterosexual actor' when we refer to Tom Hanks?
The truth of the matter is, I am a black woman, and I am an actor. I don't try to get caught up in being a black actor; I'm just an actor who is a black woman. It's not about forgetting that you're black, but you don't need to be hammered over the head, either; it just is what it is.
I was told that if I wanted to be a leading man in Hollywood, I couldn't possibly be thought of as gay.
Being an actor myself I realize that all actors believe they are qualified to play any role. If you showed me a script with a black woman character I would tell you that I could do it. That is what we do. We act as if we are someone else.
You can't be an openly gay movie star. You can't be an openly gay pop star, really - minus Ricky Martin.
It's something that I think I'm going to have to fight against for most of my career, for people to take me seriously as an actor as opposed to a good-looking guy. It's not what I want to be known as.
I'm kind of in a middle space, being marketed as a biracial actor. Roles are written either stereotypically black, or they're written 'normal,' which is just code for white.
As an actor, you're trained to do the right thing, be politically correct, say your lines, say the right thing about the people you're working with.
I only became an actor to get your attention, to challenge the archetype of an African American male; I can't be anything else in this lifetime than an African American man.