Top 60 Ashley Walters Quotes

I find it hard to network and I have an issue about what people are going to think of me.

But I’m quite liberal as a dad.

My mum’s been my backbone, my inspiration, and the person who’s pushed me in my career.

Top Boy’ didn’t try to glamorise anything. It gave it to you how it was. But it also dealt with mental health, social situations, immigration.

I went to a branch of the City of Westminster College in Maida Vale to do drama, sociology and English literature. I stayed for three or four months.

When I was young, I would go to youth clubs after school, run by my teachers and there were places to go where you could talk things out or enjoy sport with kids from different areas so territorial barriers were broken down.

Whatever I want, the next car or the next house, I stick a picture of it to the back of my door, so I can look at it first thing in the morning and dream it into existence.

My father passed away in 2005, and day after, I sat in my flat in Woolwich on my bed, and I feel that I saw him.

Drake is involved heavily, and they’re kind of working away to find the right home for ‘Top Boy,’ whether that be Netflix, whether it be on TV, whether it be Amazon, I don’t know.

When I was young I wanted to be a bus driver, because my grandad was a conductor on the Routemasters.

Top Boy’ isn’t the type of programme that is trying to be righteous and have a happy ending, it is just real.

I go away to places in Europe or America and I feel uncomfortable; I can’t wait to get home.

I was stabbed in the neck when I was 15.

It’s important for people to listen and take time to watch what’s going on in these shows, especially the ones like ‘Top Boy’ that are painting an accurate picture.

I don’t want to say I’m a role model because I’ve not been the most clean-cut person, and there were times I could have gone the other way.

A lot of people out there are not content with their life, but I am.

My heart truly lies in good scripts.

Music for me, it’s pretty annoying, because I’ve never had a successful solo career and it bugs me.

I have done a lot of short dramas that are three, four or five episodes and so that makes the filming process similar to the independent film process; it is very intimate, and it is a small cast and a small crew and everyone is there with a common goal and want the best for that project.

I had an inkling that I was going to prison before I actually did, because I’d witnessed my father and my elders going through it. It seemed like that’s the way that you got respect, which is a sad thing.

I couldn’t take that whole retail thing of being polite to people that are not being polite to you, and showing respect to people when they’ve got no respect for you. Retail in general is something I just can’t do, unless it’s my own shop.

Acting is something I feel good about doing, I’m lucky enough to love my job as well.

My mum was well-travelled, well-educated and made me understand from books, from my imagination and from just taking me away on holiday once a year, wherever she could, that the world was bigger than Peckham.

The only TV show that I’ve been in that my uncle gives me recognition for is ‘Doctor Who.’

This game is full of rejection. As an actor, you are being told ‘No’ an awful lot of the time. You have to keep getting up and carrying on to get to where you want to go.

I used to eat under my grandmother’s dining room table. I wouldn’t eat at the table ever until I was about 10.

When we think someone is a great dad, what it really means is that we like the way they try.

I wanted to show that I could take on roles that were a bit softer and more caring.

My whole journey has been televised: the negative and the positive.

The strength of ‘Small Island’ is the fact that it deals with heavy issues in a way that is appealing to watch, and it’s a story that people can relate to no matter what colour you are.

I come from a place where to go to prison is like a rite of passage. It’s something that you gain respect for. I used to watch people come out of prison, older cousins and the like, back in the day, and be in awe of them.

You know, I have got quite a husky, gritty voice which people say – even when I’m talking nicely – does sound a bit rough.

It’s down to schools to educate children about their history, especially black history.

When I was in So Solid Crew, people were always asking if we were associated with the rise in gun crime.

As an actor, you’re different in every role.

Rather than enjoying my success I was stressing about it. Wanting it, but at the same time I couldn’t handle the consequences. I was intimidated by people.

I didn’t actually rob anyone but once I was kidnapped by two older boys for half a day and they were trying to get me to steal or mug someone.

So Solid was more to me about the camaraderie, the unit between me and the other boys.

Politics isn’t about helping people, it’s about maintaining whatever people have got, whatever it takes to maintain their position at the expense of us.

I was angry when I was young, but I was never really that violent. I hardly ever fought, mainly because I wasn’t very good at it.

Some days it seems I’ve done as much as I can here and I think I’ll go and try my luck in America. But then a call comes from the Globe theatre. They want me for King Lear, playing Edmund.

When it comes to friends, as in people to relax with, that’s my wife and my kids.

Selling out is a myth. Bill Gates isn’t selling out, is he? Richard Branson isn’t selling out. Why can’t black people make money?

My dad had a real big reputation as being the hard man, street fighter, the gangster. My stepdad was quite timid, and I wanted a bit of the gangster in my life.

In my opinion, gentrification can sometimes affect what’s happening on the ends. You’re placing people in different places, moving them around, and you’re taking them out of their comfort zone and into places they’re not used to being in.

To be honest, there is going to be no ‘Top Boy America.’

There’s always that romantic Hollywood element to it. But people appreciate ‘Top Boy’ because it is what it is.

My mother was – and is – a very strong woman; very strict. She was a serious mum; a feared parent.

I’m inspired by the fact that for every kid we see committed to crime, there’s kids determined to go to uni and not follow their peers.

Drake revived ‘Top Boy,’ if I’m honest with you. You’ve got to give him a lot of credit.

The fact that ‘Small Island’ is ‘period’ is amazing for me because it’s something that I’ve never been involved with before. Also, half my family is Jamaican and this story is essentially a story about Jamaican people, and it’s portraying a part of history that I was not that familiar with myself.

I stayed well clear of roles like ‘Top Boy’ for years before I did it, but I had to do it because the script was amazing. It was the most authentic thing that I’ve ever read when it comes to that sort of life.

Drake and his camp are people of their word. I’ve never seen them say they’re going to do something and not do it.

It was tough: I had to kiss a man, and I got a mixed reaction from the black community. But I have to be ready to play any role, or I can’t call myself an actor.

I’m not a comedy guy. I don’t do comedy shows.

There was a danger when I was in So Solid and we made ’21 Seconds.’ But we’re just showing a slice of life.

My mum put me into the Sylvia Young Theatre School aged four, and I’d go there at weekends.

There were not a lot of roles for a black man like myself that were different. Then ‘Top Boy’ came. I read the script and I loved that the characters were human.

A lot of black actors will sit there and go, ‘Every role is about being a gangster’ – then they get an opportunity to write a script and they write about a gangster. You know… write about a superhero.

I sit down on my sofa and I turn on ‘Judge Judy.’ That’s my guilty pleasure. I could do a whole day of that.