Top 19 Malachi Kirby Quotes

Schoolkids – black and white – would call me Kunta Kinte as a cuss. If ever my hair was particularly messy, if ever I looked scruffy at school, I would be called Kunta Kinte. My first impression was that it was bad to be African and bad to be associated with him.

I was acting before I had given my life to Christ. But the effect that God has had on my actual career itself is now completely different.

Playing Kunta Kinte is an emotional, physical, spiritual, and mental journey.

I was the shiest person you could think of. I didn’t really speak. I was an only child, so most of my life I spent in my bedroom playing with toys by myself, speaking through them.

‘Roots’ focuses on a particular group of people who defy the odds and win, eventually, even if it isn’t in their lifetimes. This is, for me, a very positive story and a very empowering one, if only we have that perspective on it.

I believe it’s important to have equal opportunities as a black actor. My way of fighting for it is through my art, by not accepting that there are roles that aren’t for me.

At first, I had this huge desire to play a superhero, that little kid in me. Then I realized it wasn’t actually a superhero I wanted to play: it was someone fighting for a cause that’s bigger than themselves, which can go into all sorts of things.

My mum is… interesting. So, like, she’s very expressive and loving, but even if she does get excited about any of my achievements, she won’t show it… There’s something about her that wants to keep me humble.

I was 22 when my mother gave me the original box set of ‘Roots’ and she said, ‘I want you to watch this.’ I watched the whole thing back to back in the span of 24 hours. It had a profound effect on me. It felt like my story.

There was a period when I had apple pie as a treat every day of the week. I mean, like, a family apple pie.

Mum used to say that when I went out of the house, I represented her. I took that seriously. So I didn’t get involved with a lot of things. I held myself in a particular way.

It’s really cheesy, but basically, ‘Roots’ got me to find out my own roots.

I think about Shakespeare. Because there have been hundreds of variations of Shakespeare’s plays since they’ve been written, and I believe it’s because they’re important. They’re still relevant today. ‘Roots’ is still relevant today. The idea that we shouldn’t tell this story again is very strange to me.

My roots go back to West Africa, but my last name is Kirby, which is not an African name.

My dad passed when I was 6. I found out when I was about 21 that my dad always said acting would be the making of me. Where he got that from, I have no idea.

Kids under, I’d say, 14 are still maturing; they are still growing. They are still understanding themselves. To hit them with something like ‘Roots,’ to hit them with this particular period of time, it’s important to discuss the matters beyond the program itself.

I haven’t experienced a lot of prejudice in my life, but I’m not naive to what goes on in the world.

I was thinking, ‘What is it about Kunta Kinte that allowed him to live such a long life?’ For me, what came down to it was his spirit and his knowledge of self.

I found that there were things that God could reveal to me that I could never get myself physically.