To be able to inspire somebody just by doing something that you love, just by creating your art, is something that's very near and dear to my heart.
— Ashton Sanders
I wasn't like the rest of the kids. I was an artist. Living in a black society, when you're raised around a bunch of boys who plays sports and chase girls, there's this perception of masculinity that's super hard to fit into. I wasn't the stereotype of that like a lot of my peers were.
I wanna be Mahershala Ali in my next life. He's the man. He's a really genuine guy. He's a really great guy, one of my favorite people on this planet.
I'm very much of an individual myself, and I do things sometimes that the next person probably won't, or wouldn't, do because they're not me.
I auditioned for 'Moonlight' without knowing anything. I went in the room, and I didn't know the lines as well as I should have. I didn't know a thing about the script. I wasn't told anything. I heard it was a low-budget film, and my agent told me to do it. I was super-ignorant to it.
I had high hopes for 'Moonlight,' just off the reaction I had while reading the script.
Anything that's outside the standard of the average black male is looked down upon. For me, I wasn't raised playing sports. I was artistic, so that was looked down upon by people in my church, and I was teased for that growing up in school, so it goes both ways.
It's my job as an artist and as an actor to use this platform to make people learn and grow, to change their perspectives on how things are in whatever way I can.
I grew up doing theatre, where I was jumping in and out of plays, year round.
It's about being true to my artistry, which I've been doing. It's super important to do smart films.
I'm acting! And doing it for income! But it's for something that I love, and that's super rare.
I want to keep doing projects that speak for people within the community and tell different types of meaningful stories.
There's so many strict ideas and rules, whether it's from religion or it's just generations and generations.
We're raised to believe that black men have to be one specific way.
I was skinny and black and didn't play sports. And I was bullied.
It's awesome that my job is to make people have reactions.
I would just encourage my younger self to not care about people's perceptions and to love myself fully and to keep progressing and striving for what you are going to become.
Sometimes people are vulnerable. And that's fine.
I like to dress the way I like to dress. I kind of like rebelling against the social norms... I feel uncomfortable wearing just, like, regular stuff.
It's going to sound cliche, but I started acting as an emotional outlet.
'Moonlight' has changed my life externally but also internally... spiritually as well.
I think that's the most important part of doing this job, is learning different personality types. I mean, it's kind of like sociology or psychology in a sense. With that, and with every project I do, I think I'm able to pull something away that further makes me understand humanity in a way I didn't before.
I think it's cool to be different. That's what cool is.
The sad reality of it is, as black artists in the industry, we still have to work 10 times harder to get our voices out there.
There's so much in American history that has been hidden and shunned.
A lot of these artists are out here don't stay true to why they started doing this in the first place.
I definitely wasn't the kid playing sports. I was super different.
I don't think things will lead me astray, as long as I'm tapped into myself.
I bury things in the back of my mind I don't really want to deal with.
Hollywood is showing respect for all different types of art.
There are so many stereotypes of how you have to be as a black man, growing up in the community as a man.
I do my own thing, and a lot of people don't. I just move my own way.
We all have perceptions or boxes that we put each other in.
If you noticed, I wear high-water pants and white socks, which is inspired by the mod '60s, like the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Jimi Hendrix, what have you. That style of dress during that time is really, really dope to me.
We all have to wear social masks in our daily lives to get by.
My whole life has changed so much, and it's still constantly changing, but 'Moonlight' brought about a bunch of opportunities that were really surreal, from the Oscars and Golden Globes to the notoriety that it brought, to even doing things like working with Calvin Klein.
America isn't made for the black man.
It's really crazy looking back on my bullies or whoever was trying to torment me or tease me, because karma is just, like, crazy.
I'd say my heart is more in independents, but sometimes these major films come along that are pretty good, you know?
I didn't know that '12 Years a Slave' was being filmed at the same time we were making 'The Retrieval.'
For my career, I want to be able to do projects that have serious context to them or that make me grow as a person and an artist after the experience.
I was bullied in elementary to middle school. It messed with my self esteem.
Despite everything that's going on, people need love.
I feel like a lot of black men 'put on' because of what they see and because of what people tell them they have to be.
I like to have fun and be myself and express myself through how I dress.
I'm getting the training I need to progress as an actor. If something comes up and I have to drop, I'll drop.
