'Dear White People' started a conversation about race. It's such a difficult thing to talk about, especially in America because of our history. I love that you can confront it with humour and with satire.
— Tessa Thompson
There's an unfair position that women are sometimes put in, in the context of superhero movies and action movies, where at once they have to be very strong and fierce but also sexy.
I'm really excited about this generation of young women that can look at a screen and see some brown people in space.
I guess I'm sort of just a glutton for having moments when I can just do whatever I want to, which sounds terrible.
Even while I'm really interested in playing female characters that are varied and interesting and dynamic, I'm not of the mind that you always want to play strong female characters. I think I just want to play characters that are interesting, and not all people are 'strong.'
Death is just a part of life, you know? It's what makes all of life more vibrant. It's coming whether we want to accept it or not.
Cultural change always precedes political change.
Oftentimes in films, the female character, if she's not the protagonist - and often, even if she is - feels like an imitation of what a woman is.
Media truly has the power to create and shift culture.
I was born and raised in Los Angeles. I split my time between the West Coast and the East.
I grew up partially in L.A. and partially in New York. In L.A., anything goes because it's really temperate. There aren't any fashion rules dictated by weather, whereas in New York, of course, there are. New York is seasonal, and also it's a fashion mecca, so people are a little more aware of how they put things together.
I try to pick interesting projects, the kind of projects that I would want to watch.
The term 'breakout' always makes me think of an inmate or some butterfly emerging out of a cocoon.
'Veronica Mars' was my first job, and for some reason, my character changed her hairstyle halfway through the season from curly to - I don't even know why - suddenly straight.
We have this real problem as human beings to put people on pedestals - with celebrities, with historical figures - and we forget they're humans just like us.
What was so exciting for me about Wakanda and seeing 'Black Panther' was how incredible the women were in it.
I like to think I'm one of the least athletic people in real life. I don't do a whole lot when I'm left to my own devices except wield forks and knives.
I spent two weeks in Paris by myself. That was my first time in Europe.
I've felt this real need to ground my work in my ideals.
The Time's Up campaign is for everyone, in all capacities, contributions big and small.
It's so rare to have an ensemble cast of women.
I'm someone that likes to not think too binary about human qualities.
I eat almonds professionally, and I can't get enough of Yerbe Mate Cranberry Synergy Kombucha!
As a kid, I loved going to lots of thrift stores with my parents. There was a period where I thought it was embarrassing, and then I started to get older - I realized they were really cool.
Fashion is a funny thing to talk about. I think what you wear is definitely an extension of you, but I also think it's totally arbitrary.
I think we just need to have a demand for fresh and nuanced movies.
There was a period when I had a hard time reconciling all the different parts of me in a way that I thought would make sense to others.
I am multiracial, and I went through different phases - at one point, I listened to Wu-Tang and hip-hop, and then the next year I listened to Joni Mitchell.
I grew up listening to a lot of Massive Attack and Portishead.
I don't spend a lot of time contending with the fact that time is not endless.
Norse mythology is mystifying and fantastic and totally confusing, but you can draw a lot of inspiration from it.
I was gregarious as a kid, but I think the idea of actually getting to know people, I'm just shy. It sort of takes me a minute to want to sit down and talk about myself.
There are some people who don't want to deal with the fact that we are not forever. Some people decide to live life to the fullest.
Time's Up is really about safety and equity in workplaces, and that's a very multi-layered demand.
The beauty of working on a show like 'Westworld' is we're painting a not-too-distant future and talking about an aspirational sense of what power looks like in the future.
I think, as an actor, when you're starting off early in your career, you're kind of just seeing what lands. But 'Veronica Mars' definitely primed me to look for surprising, dynamic women. It took me awhile to realize how cool that job was.
I'm sort of obsessed with Harlem. Just its history. My father did the music for a play called 'The Huey P. Newton Story,' and they did a lot of work in Harlem. So as a little girl, I spent a lot of time in Harlem Library.
I grew up as a kid looking at artists like David Bowie and Prince; I really admired them.
The truth is, no, we don't live in a post-racial state anywhere in America, and this is particularly true in Hollywood.
I think I've realized that when you are aiming to create a real body of work, you are as much defined by the things you don't do as by the things you do.
I think when any one kind of film does well, it creates a precedent and paves the way for more like it.
