QuoteProject
I started out as a writer and a director. I started acting because I wanted to know how to relate to the actors. When people ask me what I do, I don't really say that I'm an actor, because actors often wait for someone to give them roles.
Chadwick Boseman
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Chadwick Boseman emphasizes the importance of understanding different roles in storytelling and the proactive nature of becoming an actor.

In this quote, Chadwick Boseman reflects on his journey in the film industry, highlighting how his background as a writer and director enriched his understanding of acting. He suggests that to truly connect with actors, one must immerse themselves in different perspectives, and even though he does not primarily identify as an actor, he acknowledges the importance of taking initiative rather than waiting passively for opportunities to arise.

Themes

ActingDirectorRolesUnderstandingProactive

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about pursuing creative passions, one might quote Boseman to illustrate the importance of taking initiative.

More from Chadwick Boseman

I think there's a difference between a working actor, a movie star and a celebrity. They're all three different things.
Chadwick BosemanRead
Even after I became involved in theater and involved in TV and film, I had this sort of idea that Hollywood was off limits. There was something about L.A., the mystique of it and fear of it.
Chadwick BosemanRead
The thing I love about Marvel in general is that they deal with people. They deal with the human being first: Who is inside the suit? Who is the person that obtained this power or this ability?
Chadwick BosemanRead
Every year, Hollywood is looking for that new, white leading man and new white starlet that audiences fall in love with. But they're not looking for the next Denzel Washington, Will Smith or Sidney Poitier.
Chadwick BosemanRead
When you make movies, it's such an important period of time, when you look back at each one of them. You want to be able to say that you did something that was a challenge and that changed you.
Chadwick BosemanRead
I watched movies, obviously, just like anybody else, but there was nothing to make me think, 'I'm going to go to L.A. and become a movie star,' or anything like that.
Chadwick BosemanRead

Similar quotes

Writing keeps me at my desk, constantly trying to write a perfect sentence. It is a great privilege to make one's living from writing sentences. The sentence is the greatest invention of civilization. To sit all day long assembling these extraordinary strings of words is a marvelous thing. I couldn't ask for anything better. It's as near to godliness as I can get.
John BanvilleRead
I see my finished platinum print (in the viewfinder) in all its desired qualities, before my exposure.
Edward WestonRead
My small torrent of words dissipated into an elaborate sense of expanding and receding. It was my entrance into the radiance of imagination. This process was especially magnified within the fevers of influenza, measles, chickenpox, and mumps. I got them all and with each I was privileged with a new level of awareness. Lying deep within myself, the symmetry of a snowflake spinning above me, intensifying through my lids, I seized a most worthy souvenir, a shard of heaven’s kaleidoscope.
Patti SmithRead
Don't be too precious about your craft... there's only 26 letters and 12 notes, and Shakespeare and Beethoven said it all better than any of us ever will
David FosterRead
I think women are vital to the future of the superhero comics and the entire industry - as creators, as editors, as consumers, as retailers.
Kelly Sue DeconnickRead
Originality is... a by-product of sincerity.
Marianne MooreRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.