Quotes by Zawe Ashton - Page 2

As an actor you can always blame the director or writer for negative feedback. But as a writer, you're the reason why everyone's in the room.
Zawe Ashton /
Blame
Feedback
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The actors I admire always have something to say, or a level of poetry, belief, activism or intelligence about what they do or how they feel.
Zawe Ashton /
Activism
Admire
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The widespread shame of motherhood is criminal, and it needs to stop. The world can never improve if you disrespect the people that bring life.
Zawe Ashton /
Disrespect
Motherhood
Life World People
Criminal
Widespread
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I didn't grow up with a lot of role models necessarily when I started out - there weren't many people who looked like me on TV. Not in England.
Zawe Ashton /
Models
Role Models
Me Grow People
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I hate when there's a band that you've loved and you go and see them and it's like only the really new experimental stuff from the current album.
Zawe Ashton /
Current
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If I'm wearing the wrong clothes I can't think. It sounds so weird but it just has to be the right fabrics and like the right feeling on my body.
Zawe Ashton /
Fabrics
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The first film I ushered was Lynne Ramsay's 'Morvern Callar.' I started at 18. Best job in the world. Blockbusters, indie films, classic matinees.
Zawe Ashton /
Blockbusters
Best World Job
Indie
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My drama teacher when I was a kid called me 'Zawe the activist' and I had no idea why. Now I've got older I can see why she always saw that in me.
Zawe Ashton /
No Idea
Teacher Me Drama
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Patsy Ferran in Tennessee Williams' 'Summer and Smoke'-I thought that was just one of the most phenomenal performances I've seen from a young woman.
Zawe Ashton /
Just One
Phenomenal
Summer
Tennessee
Performance
Williams
Young Woman
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I actually grew up around the corner from where Harold Pinter did. If you want a snapshot of my childhood, me and Pinter, we essentially grew up together.
Zawe Ashton /
Corner
Essentially
Harold
Snapshot
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Good writing shouldn't be wrapped in cellophane. It should be open to the elements and full of maggots and it should be left to grow and deepen and fester.
Zawe Ashton /
Elements
Good Writing
Deepen
Fester
Wrapped
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Secondary school was a lot harder. That was probably my hardest time. Some of the girls were really nasty. I had to move schools because of the bullying there.
Zawe Ashton /
Bullying
Harder
Nasty
Secondary School
Schools
Secondary
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I don't think there's a part that I've played or something I've written or directed that hasn't smacked of 'The Wizard Of Oz.' It's the film all roads lead to for me.
Zawe Ashton /
Film
Played
Part
Directed
Wizard
Oz
Roads
Wizard Of Oz
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I've never lived in north or west London, so I'd like to come out of my comfort zone for a bit. But Stoke Newington is where my heart is, it's where I'm born and bred.
Zawe Ashton /
Comfort Zone
Stoke
Zone
Bred
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I think I've always felt that I want to do a very specific type of work and I've made informed decisions. You know, hopefully be part of a quiet movement or revolution.
Zawe Ashton /
Informed
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It has taken a long time for me to really dress as the artist that I am: I'm an indie girl, I like experimental, I like things to be subverted. Details are the fun part.
Zawe Ashton /
Details
Time Dress Long
Experimental
Indie
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For me, the banner that I want to wave in terms of giving a jump start to writers of any gender is just to make female protagonists as complex as their male counterparts.
Zawe Ashton /
Banner
Counterparts
Protagonists
Wave
Jump
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If people call my book an actor's memoir I will be very upset. I can't bear anything too literal, so it has elements of truth and elements of fiction sitting side by side.
Zawe Ashton /
Elements
Literal
Memoir
Upset
Truth People Will
Bear
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If there's one person I looked up to obsessively, it was Will Smith. There wasn't anyone who looked like me on TV in England. 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' was my touchstone.
Zawe Ashton /
England
Me Will Person
Tv
Looked
Smith
Touchstone
Will Smith
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If I was someone who wanted to do just love-interest roles then I'd be in a difficult position. But thankfully I'm someone who likes to do things that are edgy and different.
Zawe Ashton /
Edgy
Thankfully
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I always play outsiders. I think I'm carrying a lot of those characters and I wonder if I play them because those characters need an extra element of thought to bring them to life.
Zawe Ashton /
Outsiders
Carrying
Element
Extra
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No-one tells you about being in episodic television and it ending. No-one tells you how painful it is. How bizarre it is when you've dedicated your life to one character for five years.
Zawe Ashton /
Bizarre
Dedicated
Life Character Your
Ending
Episodic
No-One
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I was very fortunate to have had three years on 'Fresh Meat,' before working on 'Not Safe for Work.' Comedy drama is a very hard genre to nail so I was very glad to have had some practice.
Zawe Ashton /
Glad
Meat
Nail
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What a character wears and how it affects their mood and their movements has always been very important to me. A character's clothes, if they're truthful, can make audiences feel something.
Zawe Ashton /
Mood
Truthful
Always Character Me
Character Me Important
Affects
Movements
Wears
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It's such a difficult thing for women, especially, to admit when we're not coping, because we're supposed to be all right with all the different roles we're born with and are piled on us later on.
Zawe Ashton /
Coping
Different Roles
Piled
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I prefer to avoid the phrase 'strong women' when talking about female characters and the lack thereof or the need therefore, because it's not about being strong, it's also about being vulnerable, funny etc.
Zawe Ashton /
Being Strong
Etc
Female Characters
Strong Women
Phrase
Thereof
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As a woman, you do have a sense that if you can do other things, then you should. If you feel, mmm, the roles are getting a little repetitive, and you know you can write, then you should write a different role.
Zawe Ashton /
Repetitive
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I don't want to be 'de-ethnicised.' I hate it when people say, 'Oh I don't even think of you as a woman,' or, 'I don't even think of you as a black woman.' Well what do you think of me as then? A loaf of bread?
Zawe Ashton /
Bread
Hate Me People
Loaf
People Say
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I'm not really sure what defines 'success in the real world' to be honest! It's so objective once you graduate, some people work, some people start families, some go looking for themselves up mountains in Peru.
Zawe Ashton /
Peru
Real World
Mountains
Defines
Graduate
Objective
The Real World
To Be Honest
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Each project you do demands a different diet in a way. Because there's so much tension in 'Betrayal,' so much holding of breath and emotion, I can't get too happy in my food choices or I can't get alert enough.
Zawe Ashton /
Diet
Betrayal
Choices
Emotion
Tension
Alert
Breath
Project
Holding
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I'm doing a play at Trafalgar Studios with The Jamie Lloyd Company - 'The Maids' by Jean Genet with Uzo Aduba and Laura Charmichael, directed by Jamie Lloyd. It's one of my favourite plays by one of my favourite playwrights.
Zawe Ashton /
Favourite
Jamie
Laura
Maids
Studios
Directed
Jean
Playwrights
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If you're looking for reps, write letters that are short and professional. Make sure you have a really great reel of yourself. If there are friends you know who are making short films, do them - it's all material for your reel.
Zawe Ashton /
Letters
Short Films
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I think anyone who has been bullied finds it life-affirming if you live to tell the tale. I just wish someone told me at school that there's this weird average whereby if you're not popular at school you will become popular later.
Zawe Ashton /
Average
Weird
Me Live School
Me Weird Live
Finds
Popular
Tale
Whereby
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I hate talking about class, but the truth is as an actor you're only going to be doing some really great work if you can afford to be out of work and take the good stuff. If you can't, you're going to be treading quite a different path.
Zawe Ashton /
Great Work
Treading
Truth Work Good
Different Path
Work Truth Good
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The chasm between independent film and commercial film is now so wide. You either have to be super-famous and get a first-time director or writer's indie script off the ground, or you're a newcomer and go and put a cape on for four years.
Zawe Ashton /
Independent Film
Wide
Cape
Chasm
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Episodic TV is notoriously brutal because just when you think 'I've got this, I know this character' you can pick up the script for series four and you die in the first episode - or your character suddenly transitions from a woman to a man.
Zawe Ashton /
Brutal
Episode
Transitions
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How long have we got to talk about women of colour and imposter syndrome. It's a real thing, and many people have it. It's, I think, a particular characteristic of the overachiever. Because you're bottomless, you never think what you've achieved is enough.
Zawe Ashton /
Colour
Overachiever
Achieved
Bottomless
Characteristic
Real Thing
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My dad constantly tells me I should calm down, but I feel so sad when I see places I've known since I was a child closing. I burst out crying when a local pharmacy closed the other day; it's just going to become a shop that nobody has much of a need for. But I am trying to move with the times.
Zawe Ashton /
Sad
Calm
Calm Down
Closing
Pharmacy
Dad I Am Me
Burst
Constantly
Closed
Crying
Local
Shop
Places
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I've had times in the past where I wanted to give up acting, get my head out of the arts because it was like my constitution couldn't deal with it. My job means I get judged on my looks; I get discriminated against because of my sex; I take on roles that are so two-dimensional... you can go mad trying to fill that third dimension.
Zawe Ashton /
Judged
Dimension
Discriminated
Fill
Two-Dimensional
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I had a meeting a while back with a big group of women - actors and producers and writers - who are all ethnic minorities and we just aired what we thought was happening and why, and someone said that, as a black or mixed race actress, you feel like you're renting space instead of carving out a career. But I'm just going to get on with it.
Zawe Ashton /
Carving
Minorities
Ethnic
Mixed
Renting
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Zawe Ashton Quotes - Page 2

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