Daniel Kaluuya
SeTi I---
SeTi I--- Adaptive
Kaluuya: "What I find really exciting is stories from a different viewpoint."
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."
Kaluuya: "Racism is like a horror movie. Black kids die because of racism. I don't know what's more horrifying than that."
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."
Kaluuya: "What you want to do is make people talk, start a conversation."
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.'"
Kaluuya: "Writing can be really lonely, and I find that bit difficult. I'd rather be around my people, getting ideas."
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."
Kaluuya: "I resent that I have to prove that I'm black."
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."
Kaluuya: "I just want to tell black stories."
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."
Kaluuya: "I think the traditional stereotypes are loaded in institutional racism."
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."
Kaluuya: "When work ends, I'd rather just be seen as Daniel - normal."
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."
Kaluuya: "The beauty of any artwork is that it becomes the person that's watching it: What do you take out of it?"