Quotes About Representation

I'm enjoying being a woman on-screen.

There were so few Asians on-screen when I grew up, and the ones who were on-screen weren't given complex characters to play.

It is so important for young people to see characters with different mental health challenges on-screen.

Women should not only be doing action on-screen but should be a part of every other aspect of filmmaking.

Every time we have a woman on-screen, we can empower her in a different way rather than just giving a speech on the importance of equality and empowerment. I think sometimes we have to show her as powerful.

I read one book where the characters never said anything; instead, they spent all their time grunting and bleating and hissing and cooing and growling and chirping and... It was like a menagerie in there. After a while, I wasn't even taking in the rest of the book, because that was all I could see: the dialogue tags.

One of the things I really like about Ford's films is how there is always a focus on the way characters live, and not just the male heroes.

One of the things I like about comedy in general is that it affords Asian Americans the opportunity to not be noble.

One of the things that we've tried to do with the 'Guardians' films is to allow the women to be full characters.

When only one or two percent of filmmakers are female, you can't help but have some kind of bias.

I think it's important to not just have one party rule.

The game of basketball is one thing, but the image of the game is another thing.

Of one thing I am certain: we are foolish if we think we will achieve change by sending the same crowd of people back to run our government again and again.

I remember at one time there were 44 mining MPs.

I've probably represented almost every major artist in the world, either directly or peripherally, at one time or another.

At one time, especially during the era of action heroes, women took a bit of a secondary role because heroes were doing most of the action.

Comics are so one-dimensional, especially 'Archie.'

I think that there are a lot of male writers and directors in Hollywood, and a lot of the female characters you do see are really one-dimensional, but I think that's changing more and more as there are more women taking control in Hollywood.

I don't know any women who are one-dimensional, so why would I play one?

There isn't only one way that black art or entertainment is represented, and that's the most important thing. We're permeating every style. We're claiming and, when necessary, appropriating all kinds of forms. Nothing is forbidden, because it's not what black people do: because it's not what we think of as black art.

Why shouldn't there be more epic, brilliant female characters onscreen?

Cogsworth, the character I did on 'Beauty and the Beast,' could be a bit flamboyant onscreen, because basically, he is a cartoon. But they didn't want Cogsworth to become Disney's gay character, because it got around a gay man was playing him.

I grew up in L.A., and I don't think I've seen L.A. onscreen in a way that felt real to me. There are definitely movies, but they are few and far between.

I grew up looking for myself onscreen and never could find myself. And I believe that I am supposed to be Toula to show people that it's O.K. to be different.