Ruth Negga

“I don't know why women aren't allowed to have the same sort of breadth and scope and flaws of men.”

“I'm not in any rush to get anywhere. There's a pressure on actors to get somewhere before it's over. But everyone wants longevity, don't they? It's a career. Why be that flash-in-the-pan, taking every job out of worry it'll soon be over?”

“The good thing about auditioning is that you get to test yourself and see if you can play this character - you're also auditioning yourself.”

“My job as an artist is to speak up for those who might be perceived as the losers. Or those who can't shout. No wonder public-school people always get into politics or acting: they're taught to shout that much more loudly.”

“I don't believe that directors need to essentially manipulate actors into doing things. You can suffer for your art, and you can make your own self suffer for your art. You don't need anyone else to do it for you. I work best when there's a safety trampoline of kindness.”

“You can suffer for your art, and you can make your own self suffer for your art. You don't need anyone else to do it for you.”

“I've met loads of black and brown and various people who are well into comics.”

“I think it's a good thing for everybody that we see the entire world reflected back at us on our screens.”

“When you connect to someone on a human level, and you get to know about them, you can begin to love the things that make them different.”

“I've always had sort of an interest in American history, full stop, and especially people who contributed to the civil rights struggle.”

“People ask me where I'm from. I say Ireland, and they are like 'Really? You don't look Irish.' Then you have to explain... people are intrigued, but sometimes you think, 'Why do I have to tell my whole story every time I open my mouth?”

“People have always made assumptions about me. I become very territorial about my identity because it's been hijacked by so many people with their own projections.”

“I think if you want to make a performance authentic, there are a certain amount of leaps of faith into the unknown that you have to take. Otherwise, you're not really risking anything. I think if you don't risk something in art, it's not really important.”

“I think a lot of actors feel like outsiders or miscreants. This profession provides an opportunity to play out all the different parts of ourselves.”

“Sometimes it's hard to play someone so similar to you, because you can muddy the character. Often, it's easier to play someone further away from you, because it's clearer who they are.”

“I didn't have that many black people in my life, so I had to sort of search them out. And I didn't grow up in America, but I identified as much with their writing about the black experience as I did with their writing about the human experience.”

“I trained, went to college, trained, and got a job. Then got another job. When I wasn't working I worked at a bar, then got another job.”

“I'm shy at public speaking, which is tough.”

“We all have as much right to take up our space in the world as one another.”

“Some people say to me, 'You don't sound very Irish.' It's because I have this tendency to iron out my accent: not because I'm ashamed of it but because it makes my life easier if I don't keep having to repeat myself.”