We’ve been fighting our whole lives to say we’re just human beings like everyone else. When we start separating ourselves in our work, that doesn’t help the cause. I’ve heard it for years: ‘How do you feel being a black filmmaker?’ I’m not a black filmmaker, I’m a filmmaker. I’m a black man, I have black children. But I’m just a filmmaker. Antoine Fuqua Read Quote
I was a fan of baseball growing up. We played baseball; I used to play in an A&P parking lot. It wasn’t always easy to find a good baseball field to play in. Antoine Fuqua Read Quote
We talk about how hard it is now. But if we look back at the ’60s, we actually had a president that was assassinated. We had riots, we had Vietnam, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, the FBI, and the Black Panther war. There was so much happening at the time where it felt like America was coming apart at the seams. Antoine Fuqua Read Quote
If you are wearing the right jersey, people rallying in around you, and hugging each other when you win, and there’s so much love and excitement when you’re together. And then people seem to walk away, take their jerseys off, and start focusing on the color of your skin. It didn’t matter for that couple hours at the game – why does it matter now? Antoine Fuqua Read Quote
The world we live in is like a Benetton ad. It’s changed, and we have to appeal to a broader audience. You want younger kids of every race to be able to see themselves in the movie. Antoine Fuqua Read Quote
Westerns are simple stories where there’s good and there’s evil and where people had a sense of space and freedom. Growing up in the city, as a kid, you’ve never really seen that before. It’s a beautiful dream to go from concrete to big skies, dirt and horses. Antoine Fuqua Read Quote
I don’t know if Prince even really paid attention to time. The moment of creativity is the moment, and you go at that moment. Antoine Fuqua Read Quote
If Prince decided that he liked you, or he liked your art or what you brought to the table, it wasn’t something that ended. It was a continuation of that thing until he went to the next thing. Antoine Fuqua Read Quote
Denzel’s all about the work. He’s all about the acting. He’s an actor. He’ll tell you himself, ‘I’m not a movie star, celebrity, something else. I’m an actor.’ He steps on a set, that’s what he is, and that’s what he gives you. He gives his heart. Antoine Fuqua Read Quote
I’d like to think that the door is always open for just the best actor for the role, you know? Race or gender shouldn’t have anything to do with it, unless the character or story is focused on that for some particular reason. Antoine Fuqua Read Quote
