Top 50 Lolly Adefope Quotes

There is something quite amusing about someone who is relentlessly positive and wants to be everyone’s friend in a cynical world.

I’ve been quite lucky, I’ve done very cool projects, but knowing there are others who are put off because they don’t see people who look like them, I feel like it’s our responsibility to change that.

Adam Hess – he thinks that if you swallow enough chewing gum you go from being left-handed to being right-handed, and vice versa, but he is my best friend anyway.

I think with ‘Ghosts’ it’s slightly affected my image of what ghosts would be. Before I didn’t really think about it that much.

I’m starting to play lots more naturalistic, realistic people than when I first started. Maybe because I was doing character comedy shows, and I was doing slightly weird, oddball characters with weird accents, those were the characters that I got cast to play – which made perfect sense.

Making comedy is a privilege, so you should be doing something no one else can do. That’s when it feels like art; it’s a personal expression and it’s being done in a unique way.

I had always wanted to do comedy, but didn’t know where to start – all I knew was that Edinburgh was where it happened.

You can still be sexist even though you’re not necessarily talking about women.

Our generation are always go-getting, hustling.

I have no brand loyalty to toothpaste. It’s absolutely a different brand every tube.

I remember someone told me Donald Trump may not leave after the election. It seemed like a fictional, almost science-fiction idea.

I love Nooworks, Mara Hoffman, and Monki, and ASOS just for the joy of ordering a pair of shoes in bed at 11 P. M. and them arriving the next day.

Much has been written on the subject of self-care, and what truly counts as such; one woman’s double gin and tonic is another woman’s culturally appropriated yoga retreat.

Comedy is changing. The appetite for more diverse stories is getting bigger.

There was a point when I was doing loads of shows that weren’t getting a series two and I was like, ‘One day, I’ll be in a show that comes back.’

I like art that’s simple but feels kind of genius – like David Shrigley or David Hockney.

It’s easy to look at a show with a diverse cast that’s touching on topics that haven’t been talked about and to think, ‘Oh, this is just political correctness; this is just box ticking.’

A lot of people just kind of act as if it’s their God-given right to be overpaid and on TV, but it just feels like there has to be a level of like: ‘This is an exciting thing to be doing.’ It’s not just something that we’re owed.

I don’t think that not seeing black women in comedy held me back, but I think subconsciously I never really thought that it was a career that I would definitely go into.

It wasn’t until a few years ago, when I was going through old Facebook pictures with a friend, and happened upon a photo of a monkey at a zoo that had been tagged as me by an old housemate, that I realized I’d normalized so much racism.

I’m very willing to cut people off if they betray the people that I love.

Performing a play or a musical or something is obviously an incredible rush, but I don’t think you get that immediate response like with comedy unless you get a round of applause or whatever.

Comedy should always evolve; it’s so easy to punch down.

Comedy is a cool thing, because, at least in my experience, if you’re good at it and people know, they’ll find out about you.

I want to keep the British side of my sense of humor.

It always felt that there were a lot of shows where there was a white lead female, who was attractive, and then I was being offered the kooky friend. And it was just like, ‘Why can’t this be the other way around?’

The thing that attracted me the most was comedy acting and people like Catherine Tate and Olivia Colman; people doing funny voices and accents.

I know my strengths are doing a weird accent or having weird mannerisms so when I have to play a normal human being, I’m like, ‘this is too hard.’

I thought I would be too vulnerable on stage doing standup. I didn’t want to get up there and say: ‘This is who I am. I want you to like me.’

If I was doing standup I would worry that someone would think I was being preachy, whereas, with a character, it always tends to be the opposite of what I think. You can get away with things.

Making people laugh, I think, is very powerful.

If I’m doing different accents, I feel like I’m acting. If I’m doing my own accent, I feel like I’m saying someone else’s dialogue as myself.

The thing I love about comedy is that it challenges you.

I live with my boyfriend, but we never cook together. It’s too stressful.

Despite having lived in London for most of my life – and being a huge fan of dancing and drinking in the street – I’ve never been to Notting Hill carnival.

I wanted to do standup, but I was too nervous. I felt it was too vulnerable basically to be yourself on stage.

I didn’t get into drama school after university. Looking back, I think I was really bad.

Boys can essentially wee anywhere, and my very scientific theory is that this privilege leads to some of the mind-blowing confidence they show in later life – for example, the number of guys I’ve known who’ve decided to ‘give comedy a go’ after finding out that I’m a comedian.

I think sometimes as an actor your career and life are kind of dependent on other people’s decisions, what other people tell you, what time other people tell you to get up in the morning, what lines people tell you to say.

Rihanna has revolutionized the beauty and lingerie industries, and that has an impact on the mental health of young women, who are measured by their beauty.

There’s nothing quite like exiting a toilet cubicle and seeing a girl running towards you with her hand over her mouth.

You can hit the comedy, but a lot of ‘Shrill’ is also emotional.

‘The Miracle Workers’ was the first time I’ve been on a big American TV set, so that felt very epic.

Steve Buscemi’s the coolest man in the world, and Daniel Radcliffe is the sweetest man in the world.

TV is kind of messed up in terms of stereotypes and who plays the leading man and leading lady.

All my characters are like, weird people. Weird, un-self aware people.

Essentially, we live in a patriarchy where women are being distracted from realizing their full potential by the amount of time they spend waiting in toilet queues.

It is fun to play someone who likes everyone and is liked by most people, or is at least tolerated.

I want to sometimes talk about race and sometimes not talk about race, but mainly just do silly voices and pretend to be like strange people, and having people be like, ‘That’s fine, we accept that.’

My friends wonder how I have the patience to engage with people on Twitter about topics such as diversity and why black British history should be taught in schools: surely it’s exhausting? And they’re right.