Wunmi Mosaku Quotes

I feel like I present the way I need to present in order to survive and feel like I can navigate.

I go into every audition and I come out and I say, ‘I did my best.’

I would say my first big break would’ve been ‘Moses Jones.’ That was the first time I had a lead.

In my head, racism was an issue that needed to be fixed by the racists. Like you needed to convince that person one at a time rather than a systemic thing that needs a whole group effort.

Some people think that gender equality is the biggest issue on the table, and to me, that’s a privilege to even think that that’s the biggest issue, because I am subject to much more inequality.

There’s an African proverb that I always quote as I think it’s incredible which is, ‘if the children are not initiated into the village, then they’ll burn it down just to feel its warmth.’

Christine Bottomley and Navin Chowdhry were really fun to work with.

You get to a certain age and you start comparing and being uncomfortable in one’s body. And then you get to a place where you start to love yourself, accept yourself, celebrate and honor yourself.

I feel like I have a very typical west African physique, and that is part of my blackness!

I’ve realized I have not been completely honest with what I need and what I want and how I’ve been treated, and I haven’t necessarily stood up for myself. I’ve not always stood completely in my power and spoken the truth.

My parents are professors. My sister is a Ph.D. student. My other sister has a business.

I’ve realized that I am very rarely honest. Outside of my family, I am very rarely honest when I step outside of the door.

I was always treated older than I am when I was a kid, so I had to be like, ‘No, I’m sweet,’ and this has continued into adulthood because of the way society portrays Black women.

I don’t think I’ve ever sought revenge, actually.

The rage of someone who continues to strive so hard and work so hard but is interrupted every day by society, by racism, by white supremacy, by the patriarchy – how can you not feel empathy?

I would die to get a part in ‘Glee’ and sing a song.

My mum was very supportive, and I don’t really understand why when I think of her humble beginnings. She grew up in one room with my grandma, my grand-dad and her siblings and a fire-pit outside to cook on. Now she’s a homeowner in Manchester and has a business.

Sci-fi and horror feel so relevant to me as a woman.

I don’t think revenge is necessarily a good emotion to explore, personally.

Gender inequality is a global issue that affects everyone.

When I get nervous my energy gets really still, and I think people think that’s me. Everything gets really still, and my voice gets a little bit lower and there is a little croak in there – sometimes you can hear it when I’m really nervous on camera.

I’m healthy, but I’m not thin.

I’ve always been quite scared about talking about race. You don’t wanna rock the boat because you want to keep working.

The day after Brexit I had a moment when someone said, ‘Don’t you want to go back to your own country?’ I wasn’t 100 per cent sure if he was thinking he was being kind? I was like, ‘Um… this is my home, thank you.’

The scary thing is that I sometimes think, ‘Oh, I’ve won a Bafta. This could be the top of the precipice.’

Racism hasn’t been an everyday thing in my life, overt racism. There is obviously structural differences, but hate? I’ve not really had that.

I think the thing I feel most comfortable in and the sexiest in is a headwrap and a t-shirt and jeans or a sweatshirt and jeans.

I plant vegetables and every time I see a flower I’m like, ‘I’m going to get a vegetable in a few weeks!’

When you get to a place where a person is so angry that they can do anything – it’s a dark dark place.

I have truly never been honest outside of the home in regards to racism and inequality and what I’ve been subject to.

I definitely think things are changing… I thought I would never be cast on network TV in America and here I am, cast on network TV – and not skinny!

I love myself, I love my skin, and I love my history. I’m grateful for who I am, grateful for the people who made me, my ancestors, and I wouldn’t change a thing.

You know, I had never heard of the Tulsa Riots – and I think something like 42 percent of Americans hadn’t – until ‘Watchmen’ on HBO. And that’s just crazy. I really saw how history is manipulated.

When I step out of my front door, I have to paint on a bright, big smile to make sure people treat me kindly rather than with suspicion, or assume that I’m going to be aggressive.

I don’t know what can be done about knife crime, gang culture and people carrying weapons because it’s a world I don’t know about, but I hope that people decide to disarm and walk away from conflict.

If I was to go around as a white woman, a white man, an Asian woman, an Asian man… the world would just respond to you so differently because of your outward form, right?

In Nigeria, my grandma sold everything – everything – for my mum’s education.

I actually sewed my own wedding dress and I sewed my flower girl dresses.

The problem isn’t being a woman, and the problem isn’t being Black; the problem is the people out there making it difficult for us – the patriarchy, the racism.

I’ve been very much the kind of person who’s very quiet about my own experiences.

Until ‘Lovecraft Country’ feels like a show where people go, ‘Is that how the world used to be?’ we do need to talk about it and make art about it, because sadly, it’s not history yet.

I would always say I can sing, but I’m musical. I’m very good at following instructions, reading the music, and singing as it’s written down, but there was a challenge when I had to improvise.

I grew up on a council estate.

If we want the world to change, we can change it. But in order to change it, the world collectively has to do better.