There's a lot of black men running around with crazy trauma scars, and they should be going to therapy. They should be sitting down and talking to people. But they can't. If you've got the armor of being a man, and the armor of being a black man, that hyper-masculine thing can make those scars deeper.
Racism is like a horror movie. Black kids die because of racism. I don't know what's more horrifying than that.
I go to Uganda, I can't speak the language. In India, I'm black. In the black community, I'm dark-skinned. In America, I'm British.
This industry's hard. The world is hard. Being young and black is tough.
I have to show off my struggle so that people accept that I'm black. No matter that every single room I go to, I'm usually the darkest person there... I kind of resent that mentality. I'm just an individual.
Really, I have no idea how I'm perceived in the industry.
I listened to this book, 'The Beauty Myth,' about how beauty standards are messing with women in Western society, and I was like, 'I don't know this.' I have no idea, and I don't pretend to, but now I'm more aware of it because I've engaged on that frequency.
I have to own the fact that I'm a black man - that's why I did 'Black Panther' and 'Widows' because if I play the industry game, I lose.
I like three-dimensional characters - it's just more interesting when you get on set.
The beauty of any artwork is that it becomes the person that's watching it: What do you take out of it?
I hope people listen to black people more. You'd be surprised how little people listen to black people when it comes to racial issues. It's weird.
I'm dark-skinned. When I'm around black people, I'm made to feel 'other' because I'm dark-skinned. I've had to wrestle with that, with people going, 'You're too black.' Then I come to America, and they say, 'You're not black enough.'
When you're a young black man, you're not allowed to be emotional. One of the reasons I act is people pay me to be emotional.
I resent that I have to prove that I'm black.
What's great about 'Skins' is that the characters are exactly like people around you.
If I was at school and one of my friends said something funny, I'd write it down in a notebook and take it to the writers meetings. I never told my friends about it. I just thought I could incorporate stuff that was true to life.
Writing can be really lonely, and I find that bit difficult. I'd rather be around my people, getting ideas.
When work ends, I'd rather just be seen as Daniel - normal.
I think the traditional stereotypes are loaded in institutional racism.
I go to music festivals, and people want to talk to me about racism. I'm like, 'Bro, I'm trying to have fun!'
