Top 55 Ruth Negga Quotes

You know when you’re a kid and you get to pick a movie every Friday? I watched everything. There’s no particular genre that was appealing. I just loved the idea that you could dress up and play.

I’m not the most articulate person.

People have these ideas about comic books and their adaptations as flashy and sort of surface-y, broad-strokes-type projects, but they’re not, really.

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?

I become very territorial about my identity because it’s been hijacked by so many people with their own projections.

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

I use the term ‘spine’ for people when I think that they may seem on the surface sort of reticent, shy, self-deprecating, shying away from the spotlight. Quiet.

I work best when there’s a safety trampoline of kindness.

I grew up in an area of Ireland where there weren’t many black or mixed-race children. But I never had any hassle; maybe I’ve blocked it out, but I don’t think so.

America has a black president, but there are no black studio heads, and there just aren’t that many black people working anywhere on film sets, let alone in positions of power in Hollywood. That’s what needs to change.

If people want to invade your privacy, they want to invade your privacy. I find it chilling, and I find it awful, and it makes me really nervous. It hasn’t happened to me much, but when you have a taste of it, it’s bitter.

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.

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.

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?

You don’t come to see a Greek play and not want blood and gore and depth of feeling from your boots up.

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.

Sometimes, people know me from Marvel’s ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ But that usually only happens in America.

I didn’t become an actor to make money. And I didn’t become an actor to be famous – though people always gasp if you say that, as if it’s unfathomable that an actor doesn’t want to be a star.

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 don’t know why women aren’t allowed to have the same sort of breadth and scope and flaws of men.

I auditioned for ‘Loving’ two years before we started shooting, so in the hopes that I would be playing Mildred, I watched it again. Also it’s one of the best documentaries I’ve seen. I found this couple interminably fascinating; even if I didn’t get the part, I just wanted to know more about them and their story.

I don’t think I have ever thought of myself as a movie star. I think when I was about seven, I thought it must be lovely to have an Oscar. But the more involved you are in this business, the more that pretence disappears, and you really get to see what you love about it, and what I love is working.

I’m shy at public speaking, which is tough.

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.

The god of theater laughs in your face at planning. You can’t plan as an actor; there’s no way, because so much of it is dependent on other people’s choices and decisions that you’re at the whim of fate, really.

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 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.

I think kids are amazing. You kind of just deal with stuff, don’t you? It’s only years later that you have to spend thousands in therapy.

The idea that you must treat actors a certain way in order to get a performance out of them kind of disturbs me, and it’s disregarding what we do. Our job is to do our job.

I don’t really know how strong someone is if they’re compelled to a life of violence. Is that strong? No. That’s damaged.

I think if you don’t risk something in art, it’s not really important.

I’m all for philosophical debates about race, but if you look at history, you see that the status quo has power when it’s unchallenged. So these conversations about inequality are crucial.

There are no actions involved in ‘beautiful.’ It’s such an inactive thing, and it’s so subject to each individual’s taste and appreciation. It’s a lovely word, but I feel like it’s been hijacked by really boring, dull people who don’t understand how to use words.

My family very much adored me, and at school, I was an object of fascination.

I had quite a scattered childhood. I was Irish in London, because I had my secondary school education there. I never really fitted anywhere. I didn’t feel it was a negative thing, and I was never made to feel different – I just knew I was.

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

Ireland is home. And I’d love to move home. That’s always been the plan.

I’m interested in the idea that we all start off as these lovely little babies with all this potential but that circumstances mean that we don’t always live the life we should.

When you label someone ‘up and coming’ or ‘the new breakout,’ there’s this kind of expectation. And I think, like I said before, it’s very hard to live up to that expectation when you really don’t have that much power as an actor – in terms of your career path and the timing.

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

Women always have to have this soft, maternal, sort of – I don’t know – moral center.

When you work with directors who really love actors, who love their contribution, it feels amazing. But sometimes when you work with directors, you feel like you’re in the way.

I like connecting with people, and that’s what good art is: a point of connection. There’s nothing better, on stage or on film.

I love the Greeks. There’s no messing around – it’s all do or die with them.

I don’t think I’ve necessarily been able to pick and choose in my career; I don’t know how many people do. But I’ll tell you what I’ve been able to do: I’ve been able to say no. It is the only thing you can hold on to sometimes, is that ability to say ‘no.’ And I think that in that way, you can create some kind of career.

When I was little, I thought that everyone wanted to hold me as a baby because I was this thing of fascination. But rather than this thing that wasn’t quite right, I just felt that my difference was something that was probably very exotic.

I’ve gone into auditions, and I think they have an assumption about me when they see my photo, and then I open my mouth, and they say, ‘Where exactly are you from? And you were born in Ethiopia? But you’re Irish, but you also kind of sound English. That’s really strange.’

I was moved by the ‘Lovings’ story because of my own background as a mixed-race person.

History is written by the winners. My job as an artist is to speak up for those who might be perceived as the losers. Or those who can’t shout.

Bette Davis is my hero. I’m obsessed with her. I base everything I do on her.

Ninety percent of my roles, I’ve had to fight for. It’s only a really small percentage of people who get handed roles.

I’ve always been very talkative, very chatty, quite hyperactive. I grew up with a lot of cousins, and most of them were boys. Four in particular and I were the demolition squad. Havoc.

In many ways, playing a real person is slightly easier because you have a road map. When you’re playing someone fictitious, there’s myriad ways in. With a real person, there’s boundaries, and that sometimes makes the work easier.

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 favorite film is ‘All About Eve’.