Award-winner Kaluuya: I don’t see myself as a Brit when I take US roles
LONDON-BORN actor Daniel Kaluuya says “I don’t even see myself as British” as he addressed controversy over British actors playing African-Americans in films.
Kaluuya, who has just won a Golden Globe for his role as Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah, has made a successful Hollywood career starring in films such as Get Out.
However, there has been pushback from American actors at the number of roles Black British actors have won in major US films. Samuel L Jackson said of Kaluuya’s casting in Get Out: “I tend to wonder what that movie would have been with an American brother who really feels that.”
Kaluuya says he understands the reaction to him playing Hampton, telling Screen Daily: “There’s a history of African-American erasure... As someone coming into their country and portraying a person that fought for them and represented them, I’m open to hearing it.”
But when it came to playing Hampton, Kaluuya explains “I felt the responsibility, just in terms of what he meant as a man… I didn’t lead with, ‘Oh, I’m British.’ I don’t even see myself as British. So I don’t internalise that perspective on me, especially when I’m building a character.”