Quotes About Stereotypes

When I joined Bollywood, I too wanted decent and challenging roles but there were no offers. Directors and producers look at me as a woman who is willing to expose and that is the only reason they want to sign me.

People assume that trans people will only be accepted as trans characters, or that there aren't enough trans writers, or that there aren't any trans producers or directors, there's that attitude.

From my experience, I would say no: actors of East Asian descent don't get the opportunities white actors do. I know that's inherently a problem in a country that produces a lot of period drama, but I have to fight so hard to get parts that don't have something to do with China.

I don't even use profanity when I'm angry. I think people expected I'd have written a nice romance or something.

The entrenched beliefs many westerners profess about Islam often reveal more about the West than they do about Islam or Muslims.

I find it irresponsible to go, 'She's an actress, what does she know?' That means if you're a dentist, what do you know? If you're a lawyer, what do you know? It's our profession, it's what we do. It's not who we are.

I'm beginning to get pigeonholed as the girl who plays the crazies and weirdoes - and that's not the entirety of who I am. Hopefully, the whole point of being in this profession is that you change into anyone you want to be.

I believe you have to start with yourself, think about your bad habits and prejudices, not only in your profession but generally in life. Why do I assume that a doctor is a man? Something is indoctrinated from very early on.

There were no examples of girls like myself becoming successful actresses. To be an actress in England was a serious, upper-middle class girl's profession. I just thought I would never be accepted unless I pretended to become somebody I wasn't.

It is annoying that some people only see black women as role models to other black women, rather than as role models to lots of different people.

We know that we're not supposed to be racially biased, and we don't want to think of ourselves as racially biased, so we tell ourselves a different story.

People always say 'You do racial comedy.' And I don't, exactly. I do cultural comedy. Because race and culture are two different things. There's black people from America and then there's black people from Africa. Racially, they're the same; culturally, they're extremely different.

Men treat men differently than they would a woman.

A lot of people - boys - look at me differently. They think that if they date me, they are gay because they are dating another boy. In instances like this, I feel almost excluded, if that's the right word. I feel like I'm being put on a different shelf.

Why can't we digest a woman taking the lead in a love scene?

I have to go out for lunch and dinner because I can't cook. I need a woman to come and save me from my cooking.

There are a lot of women who direct in a way that is even more masculine sometimes than men - and that's not a bad thing, either.

I never want to set a belief that a woman has to direct a woman's film, meaning she can't direct a man's film. If only films can be directed by people who are exactly the same as that, it's only gonna limit all of the women more.

I had a casting director tell me to be blacker.

It's a dumb question, because I don't look at things as a black director, just as a director, so ask me as a director first and we can segue into the colour thing later.

If you see films which have been successful over the last 10 years, the women in them have been in their 20s. 'The Dirty Picture' and 'English Vinglish' are two I can think of. But there are very few good roles for women in their 30s.

I must say also that it's never worked to my disadvantage that I have long, blond hair.

People make assumptions about me based on my music. I've literally had people stop me in the street: 'You are so sweet. I bet you haven't had a bad thought in your whole life!' I'm like, 'Really? I hate to disappoint you!'

Real men don't know what they want for Christmas. Despite the fact I'm deeply disappointed every Christmas. I pride myself on not wanting anything. Children want things, women want things, dogs and cats want things, but men don't.