I love writing for other actors, women of African descent and people who are generally underrepresented.
Danai Gurira
I never consider myself a minority. I see people who look like me in Barbados, in Trinidad, in Haiti, in London, and in Brooklyn. So I don't know what the heck anyone means when they call me a 'minority.' There's something about that word to me. It just minimalizes people.
Actors may not realize the extent of their own power. Acting is creation. It's them bringing their own stuff, letting it marinate in their soul, in their creative engine.
I'm not only a person of color, I'm also a woman. And I'm not only a woman, I'm also a woman from the Third World. All those elements put together means I have a lot to do.
I've always been extremely physically active.
We moved to Zimbabwe when I was five, some years after Zimbabwe had gained independence.
I always used to say hybrids would rule the world - people who have an understanding of many cultures and can relate to them with ease. And then along came Obama.
I like to focus on stories that need to be told and are not told enough. When I get bit by that bug, and the story is saying, 'You must tell me,' I then go through a process which is often painful and arduous, and long - and joyful! - of submitting to the story until I prove a worthy enough vessel to get it out.
It's something I've constantly found shocking - all this astounding talent amongst black women that never gets to be seen or heard.
Zimbabweans are so smart and witty and able to weave together tons of situations and experiences into terminologies that are just utterly original.
I want women and girls of African descent and of color to be able to not have to keep searching for stories about themselves.
You look at women like Lena Dunham, you look at how women are kind of crafting their own space on the screen. I want to add to that.
Why can't black women on stage tell stories that can affect white men in the audience?
I want to see women of African descent shine.
I've always been attracted to action stuff.
My artistic spirit is not nurtured by blogospheres.
I work with writers whom I believe to be true storytellers. And because I'm a writer, I pay very keen attention to their vision. I find that so fueling creatively because, in telling those stories, you use everything you've got. You come away with battle scars. It's gratifying and invigorating.
I'm all about getting the training. Don't roll out of bed and say, 'I can do this.'
I hate horror movies! I avoid them like the plague. I don't like getting scared.
I call myself Zimerican. I was born in the Midwest to Zimbabwean parents. My father was a professor at Grinnell College in Iowa.
I often feel like a nutty professor, like I'm going to try this experiment and see if it works. My hypothesis is, people in the West can absorb African women stories without any shaken or stirred mixer. It can come directly from the source.
You Americans, you have no idea how much your stuff infiltrates the rest of the world!
A zombie apocalypse isn't the most jovial situation.
Back in the day, I used to read 'Archie,' but I haven't been a comic book aficionado.
I got an M.F.A. in acting from NYU, and part of our training is to learn how to use swords in combat situations in a performance and Shakespeare plays where you have to fight.
I don't care about the quality of the film as a whole, but I loved 'Salt.' I loved it!
I create fictional narratives, but it's based on literal people.
You have to remember that you are part of a craft, and you are constantly building your craft. Ultimately, we are artists, so it comes from us. And I think the tricky thing about being an actor is that we're looking for someone else to give us something... Thinking like an artist and thinking like an out-of-work actor are two different things.
I was in a very multi-racial, multi-cultural schooling system. I had a really delightful childhood. I was a jock. I became a very competitive swimmer in Zimbabwe. I was a swimmer, a tennis player, a hockey player. Then, when I was 13, I joined a Children's Performing Arts workshop in Zimbabwe.
I went to Macalester in Minnesota to study social psychology, the study of why people do what they do. I was really looking at race, population, gender, and how we psychologically function in a way that affects our societal outcomes around those issues.
If a story is telling a truth, then why shouldn't it affect everybody?
I'm a child of academics.
We are used to women's narratives being defined through the male perspective. I challenge that as a concept.
If my work is on the stage, you can be rested assured I'm going to make use of it as a platform for activism as much as possible.
I'm a storyteller. I'm always willing to serve the story, a story I believe in, in whatever way is necessary. If I need to write the story I believe in, I will write it. If I've been offered to act in a story that I truly believe in, I will happily do that, but I'm a storyteller. That's something I'm so thankful for.
I went to grad school because I wanted to learn the rules so I would know how to break them. Breaking the rules is saying, 'I'm breaking in, OK? I'm breaking in your very comfortable little house over here, and I'm going to take a room.'
I grew up in Harare, Zimbabwe. And I had a pretty idyllic childhood. I felt that I was kind of this outspoken girl, I was considered. I was a girl who talked a lot and didn't think my voice had any less value than anyone around me. Apparently, that was strange.
