Despite being a dark-skinned black man, actor Daniel Kaluuya still has to prove his race.
That’s what the “Get Out” star said in an recent interview with GQ magazine.
He spoke out after Samuel Jackson criticized the casting of Kaluuya, who is British, in the horror film.
“Get Out,” which was written and directed by comedian Jordan Peele, has been celebrated for taking on racism in a plot centered on a black man visiting his white girlfriend’s parents for the weekend.
In an interview with New York radio station Hot 97.1 last week, Jackson wondered “what that movie would have been with an American brother who really feels that.”
“Daniel grew up in a country where they’ve been interracial dating for 100 years,” he said. “What would a brother from America have made of that role?”
While Kaluuya hailed Jackson as “a guy who has broken down doors,” the “Get Out” star told GQ: “When I’m around black people I’m made to feel ‘other’ because I’m dark-skinned.”
“I’ve had to wrestle with that, with people going, ‘You’re too black,'” Kaluuya said. “Then I come to America and they say, ‘You’re not black enough.'”
Black people in Britain have dealt with plenty of racism, he said. They “had to live in a time where they went looking for housing and signs would say, ‘NO IRISH. NO DOGS. NO BLACKS,'” he said. “That’s reality.”
Kaluuya said he just wants to tell good stories. “Get Out” was just such a story, and the actor said it’s frustrating that “in order to prove that I can play this role, I have to open up about the trauma that I’ve experienced as a black person.”
“I have to show off my struggle so that people accept that I’m black,” Kaluuya said. “No matter that every single room I go to I’m usually the darkest person there.”
“I resent that I have to prove that I’m black,” he added. “I don’t know what that is. I’m still processing it.”
Source: CNN