Quotes About Career

If I hadn't left South Africa, I felt I was at risk of being pigeonholed. I looked around and saw actors who, 10 to 15 years into their careers, were still playing stereotypical Afrikaans characters, stereotyped Indian characters. That was not something that I wanted for myself.

Everything big-budget or stereotypical I was offered after 'Slumdog Millionaire' was a huge no-no.

Because I sidestepped all the stereotypical roles, in a way I've made a career out of not being Asian - a lot of my roles weren't written as Asian - so there's an impulse in me that wants to take a U-turn and play a very grounded, real Asian character, maybe an immigrant.

I hear actors complain about being stereotyped, and a lot of the time, you have yourself to blame. Just don't take the part if you feel like it's a stereotypical part for you. You have control over your life. We don't have the old studio system, where you have to do what they tell you.

Every job I've done so far, every character has been completely different, and that's really important to me because I don't want to fall into a stereotypical box. Of course, every actor has their box, and you have to respect and play for it, but I do love challenging myself.

You know what I did? I turned down an offer to do 'Enemy of the People' with Steve McQueen. It doesn't matter that the film was never really released. A movie like that, successful or not, adds to your credits. It leads to other roles.

I haven't had the recognition I deserve. You can go back to anybody's career - Ricky Hatton, Joe Calzaghe, David Haye, Amir Khan, Chris Eubank, Nigel Benn, Steve Collins, Naseem Hamed. My record is better than all of theirs. I've won against more unbeaten fighters than any of them, had more exciting fights.

Kids in college often look for mentors and role models to model their careers after, and women don't have the equivalent of a Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. I think it's a self-perpetuating loop.

I would like to be someone like Steve Martin. That's the path I'd like to follow.

I always wanted to do a comedy, but I wanted to pick the right one. But it came down to working with Steve Carell. I've wanted to work with him since I met him years ago as a kid.

I think I signed some contract, early on in my career, that I will only kiss Steve Carell when I do a movie.

Jim Carrey and Steve Carell did dramatic roles. I look up to them. You want a career like that.

Oh, man, first part of my career was awesome: having my big brother Steve Ray - he's my blood brother, my real brother - having him watch my back for nearly 10 years in WCW.

A career high was when I did a cover for 'W Magazine's July issue with Steven Meisel. So few girls shoot with Meisel in their career, and a lot of people had told me I would never achieve that, so it was a dream come true.

Now in the U.S.A., a lot of great players come after their careers in Europe, like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Andrea Pirlo, great players.

If it fits in with my career, it will be a challenge for me to play for a MLS team. If that would be Steven Gerrard's club, that would be very special.

Steven Gerrard wanted to speak to me, so I went to see him and we had a sit down over my future. He's someone who had pretty much been in the public eye his whole life, and now that I was going to be in bigger fights earning better money, he took it upon himself to give me a talking to about what I should do next.

The influence of Steven Spielberg to my career is unquantifiable. Every day on the set with him is a master class in filmmaking.

When Steven Spielberg comes calling, it behooves you to seriously consider it.

I find it amusing that every time I was asked when I will work with Zoya or Farhan, I was quoted as saying, 'It will be easier to convince Steven Spielberg to cast me rather than my own children.' That has come true.

I'm very focused on the world and my career and my Porsche turbo and making money and Stevie B. Inc. I'm just living according to the standards of the world.

I do feel grateful, and I love what I'm doing, and I'm happy, and I'm living in the moment, but I also have my eye on the long game and the big prize, and that is just to make this a life-long career. To make a big enough impact on everybody to stick around for a long time.

Any girl who likes watching movies would like to work in them and would want to do all of that. I'm also one of them. But people know me for badminton and love me for it. So I'd stick to it right now. But maybe after badminton, I'll think about it.

The myth is that women and their families don't have to make trade-offs to have an 'extreme career'; they absolutely do. How you prioritize your life and career is your choice. Once you make a decision, stick to it; don't always second-guess yourself.