Films with predominantly white casts can come in any form, tell any story, big or small. For black films, you have the light, fluffy rom-coms or 'Madea' movies, and then you have the black-torture awards movie.
— Justin Simien
Here's the thing: I come from a filmmaking background, so this concept of sort of overseeing a television show but not directing was, in general, not weird, but I had to get used to what that felt like. My initial instinct was, 'I want to direct as much of this as possible.' But the logistics of making of TV, that's just not possible.
There was a time when a studio executive would really love something and have no proof at all that it would work and just do it because they believed in it. That's how 'Star Wars' happened.
I tend to take on too many projects at the same time, but as I've always done, I will continue to shift my focus onto whatever feels most urgent in the moment.
I definitely have fun commenting on the real world and interpreting through the 'Dear White People' lens.
I went to a school called Chapman University, which is a wonderful film school. It was a great program, but it was very white, and it was a culture shock for me because I grew up in Houston, Texas, and I went through what they call magnet schools, so my friends were like a Benetton ad.
Usually, with 'Star Trek,' you always trust the captain. The captains are always going to pull us through; the captain's always going to win.
I think I have a threshold for taking things too seriously.
I took an internship at Focus Features while I was in film school. I was really interested in how specialty movies were marketed and found their audience despite being about topics that were outside of the mainstream.
We get caught in our little silos and end up working against ourselves. And I think social media culture really encourages that, because you're really just shouting into a void hoping someone picks up on what you're saying.
There is a difference between being offended and being prejudiced and even being bigoted against. There's a difference between that and racism.
I think we all have identity crises throughout our lives.
The further away you get from being a straight white man, the less freedoms you have to figure out who you are and negotiate what you mean to society.
Hip-hop isn't dead by any means, but it's not something I define my black identity with.
I loved Lena Dunham's 'Girls.'
I am more than a black guy. I am a person, I'm storyteller, I'm a son, I'm a friend, so I am all those things, so it is frustrating, to a degree, to be limited by other people's perceptions of me, but at the same time, it is true that I am a black guy, and, you know, it's like I'm rooted in but not bound by.
Basically, the system works to my disadvantage for no other reason than that I am a person of color, and I am telling stories about people of color.
It's always kind of gratifying to go back to the place that launched you and show you did good.
I know it's 'Dear White People,' and you can imprint all kinds of concessions about what the show might be about on the title, but my goal was never to, like, educate white people. My goal was always to create characters that you can relate to and fall in love with.
Hollywood is a world where the only thing that gets green-lit is something that made money the last year.
My thing is to try to tell the truth as honestly as possible. For me, the weight is, how can I tell the truth through fiction, the best that I can?
If I just wanted to put clean, perfect images of black people on the screen for an hour and a half, first of all, there are other people already doing that, and they're making a lot of money doing it.
I love great prestige television, but because I make television, sometimes I don't want to, like, you know, fall into a very heavy cerebral drama.
There is no monolithic black culture. It's completely different for someone born in Harlem to someone born in Houston or London with one exception, which is that people contributing to black culture have the experience of being black.
If you examine any aspect of the human condition long enough, you really do have to start laughing at it. Because the business of being human is kind of ridiculous.
I wanted to be a filmmaker since I was a kid. I always did things that took me a little closer to that.
When you're part of a society where you're constantly having to define your identity and sort of negotiate with what the mainstream culture thinks you are, you have less energy and time to figure out who you are when you go home at night.
There are a plethora of ways of being black, just like there's many ways to being white.
Any time a black person has the audacity to tell everybody else that they're also human beings, they are confronted with all kinds of malice and violence and ill will. It's been that way since black people were brought to this country.
I don't doubt that straight white men have identity issues and identity complexes and struggle with defining themselves.
To surrender your ego, you have to have one first.
I'm not a big fan of shooting something that looks like it could belong in any movie. I'm not a fan of, okay, 'wide shot, wide shot, medium shot, close-up, close-up - we'll figure it out in post.' I hate that.
It is frustrating having to walk through America having to bob and weave people's impressions of me because they see a tall black guy walking down the street. That is frustrating.
There is an obsession with black tragedy. If you see a black movie, it's typically historical, and it tends to deal with our pain. And listen, there have been some excellent films made in that vein, and there are some painful parts of black history that should be explored, but it is kind of weird that only those films bubble up to the surface.
Part of my struggle with being gay was that a lot of my homophobia was internalized because of the cues that I was - received. I didn't see anybody like myself in the culture. RuPaul was the closest to a gay, out black man that I had growing up.
It is a fine line between making fun of the right thing and making fun of the wrong thing. And the language oftentimes is the same.
Every movie has the thing it's about, and then, deep down, it has this thing that it's really about. 'Star Wars' is not really about a space opera, action, and the galactic quest. It's about self-doubt.
America is a different country, and it will forever be a different country after the election of Donald Trump.
I think art is much more valuable when it's honest. If it's not honest, it's just propaganda.
Racism is over in the 'Star Trek' future, but they found a way to comment on sexism and racism in the present day in such a subversive and smart way, you know?
One of the most powerful lessons I learned is when you make an argument in a film, you have to make sure both characters are right.
I think I'll always be making movies that intend to say something new.
We like to think of the '60s as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X and a little bit of friction - no, there were all of these different groups. There was the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Black Panthers, Martin and Malcolm, but also the Whitney Youngs of the world, the Bayard Rustins of the world.
Black people are experiencing a systemic disadvantage, and it goes back to slavery, which was not that long ago.
For whatever reason, gay characters, or characters that deal with sexuality issues, who are black, in 'black films'... are typically not dealt with with any sort of complexity. They're exoticized: their being gay is sort of the point.
You know what, man, that's part and parcel of being a black person in this country: everything's harder. It just is.
I find myself listening to Blood Orange and Janelle Monae and artists like that.
I've been taught through life experience that, like, I'd better open my mouth and quickly define myself in a new space and with new people because, if I don't, I will be defined.
Satire and comedy are really the only film mediums where you can get into ideas and have people leave the theater without being moralized.
There can't be reverse racism against a group that is not at a disadvantage.
