Daniel Kaluuya Says He Was Denied Roles in England Because He is Black
We’re beside ourselves with this realization.
We love Daniel Kaluuya. He’s one of the best actors of our generation. Now that he has found great success in the United States (thanks to Get Out and Black Panther), he’s revealed that what led him to find work here was an issue with racism in his native England.
“I was going for a lot of stuff [in England],” he told The Sunday Times in a new interview. “But I wasn’t getting roles because of the color of my skin. It wasn’t fair. It was a trap.”
“For example, I went up for this show. It was 10 rounds of auditions. There was me and a white guy for the lead. It was about aliens. And I realized as I was going to one audition that the other guy had been given an acting coach. They didn’t love me like they loved him.”
He added, “In any other profession, that would be weird, but it was accepted in mine. It happened a few times, and I went, ‘Nah. I’m not an idiot.’”
In recent weeks, the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) has fallen under scrutiny for nominating only white actors this year. In 2018, Daniel was recognized with BAFTA’s Rising Star Award. However, in that same year 94 percent of all BAFTA nominees were white.
Thankfully, Daniel is in a professional place now where he can afford to speak out about such systematic oppression in the industry. Keep speaking out!