Jodie Turner-Smith

“I understand we love to talk about black girl magic, but sometimes that is a term that allows people to put us in this character like we're not real people that feel real things.”

“The fact that I'm being cast in a show to play a female lead and I'm the dark-skinned Black woman with short hair, it's so incredible.”

“No offense to anybody from Pittsburgh, but Pittsburgh wasn't for me.”

“What's unique about America is that the country itself was built upon oppression, it's in the very foundation.”

“It's a very complicated relationship that I have with America. I love it so much. And I also see the places where it's flawed.”

“I'm from Peterborough, which is two hours north of London.”

“My family is Jamaican. We were just the slaves that were dropped off over there. And at the end of the day when you live and exist as a Black person in America, at least to white society, to a certain extent, no one is asking where you're from and where you were born.”

“I've always been 'other' in all the spaces that I've been in. Even when I first moved to America, just the idea that I was a dark-skinned black girl from England with an accent. It's one thing to be a black girl, but it's another to be a dark black girl. I was chastised for that. I was chastised for the way I spoke.”

“I went to business school so what they teach you in business school was that success is about positioning yourself to get lucky. It's not just about how hard you work. It is also about a little bit of luck. To position yourself to catch the luck when it comes.”

“England has gone off the rails.”

“I'm learning there are certain things I have to really keep for myself.”

“We definitely experience racism in England and different levels of oppression as well. Anywhere affected by colonialism there's certain kinds of race relations and class relations going on.”

“I think about what I grew up seeing, what I didn't see growing up, and what it felt like when I did see someone who I thought that I could relate to, just living their life on screen.”

“I think there's always been a little performer in me. But having a family that are Jamaican immigrants, having this idea that, 'Oh, that's what you're going to do for a living?' seems kind of out of reach and not a reality. It's like, 'get a real job.'”

“There was this wave of people who were upset that I was possibly married to a white man.”

“I watched the Sandra Bland documentary and her tape itself over and over and over and over again, and just the reality of that, the fear in that.”

“That callousness that comes from feeling like you have to survive on your own - I really empathized with that.”

“In America, interracial dating or marriage is not something that is as accepted. Certain people feel strongly against it, in both communities. I felt it from the black community. It is so complicated. I don't want to give it too much energy.”

“I read the 'Nightflyers' novella and knowing that it was something that had been written by George R.R. Martin, knowing how those stories kind of go, I was really curious to see what happened to my character in the source material.”

“So I was really excited when I came to America about meeting black people. But it was a huge culture shock, because I was rejected by the black community. They were like, 'You talk like a white girl.' People would call me an Oreo. All I wanted was acceptance.”