Even after I became involved in theater and involved in TV and film, I had this sort of idea that Hollywood was off limits. There was something about L.A., the mystique of it and fear of it.
I think there's a difference between a working actor, a movie star and a celebrity. They're all three different things.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Chadwick Boseman highlights the distinctions between a working actor, a movie star, and a celebrity.
In this quote, Chadwick Boseman expresses his belief that while the terms 'working actor', 'movie star', and 'celebrity' are often used interchangeably, they represent distinct roles in the entertainment industry. A working actor focuses on their craft and often takes on various roles, a movie star is recognized for their leading roles and box office appeal, while a celebrity may be famous for reasons beyond acting, including public appearances and personal life.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During an interview on the impact of art, one could quote Chadwick Boseman to emphasize the different facets of talent in the industry.
More from Chadwick Boseman
All quotes βThe thing I love about Marvel in general is that they deal with people. They deal with the human being first: Who is inside the suit? Who is the person that obtained this power or this ability?
Every year, Hollywood is looking for that new, white leading man and new white starlet that audiences fall in love with. But they're not looking for the next Denzel Washington, Will Smith or Sidney Poitier.
When you make movies, it's such an important period of time, when you look back at each one of them. You want to be able to say that you did something that was a challenge and that changed you.
I watched movies, obviously, just like anybody else, but there was nothing to make me think, 'I'm going to go to L.A. and become a movie star,' or anything like that.
I started out as a writer and a director. I started acting because I wanted to know how to relate to the actors. When people ask me what I do, I don't really say that I'm an actor, because actors often wait for someone to give them roles.
Similar quotes
I think it takes a lot of trickery to keep up with the media and its perception of you. I don't know if I have it in me most of the time to care. The music is made first, and the interviews or photos to keep it alive come later as a necessary evil, I suppose.
Drama, instead of telling us the whole of a man's life, must place him in such a situation, tie such a knot, that when it is untied, the whole man is visible.
I don't like to write rhetorically or get on a soapbox. I try to make the stuff multi-layered, so that it always has a life outside its social context. I don't believe that you can tell people anything; you can only draw them in.
I would pass this music store on the way to school, and there was a clarinet in the window, a second-hand one. And I kept asking my parents to buy it, and eventually they did. I still have it now.
In the writing of poetry we never know anything for sure. We will never know if we have 'trained' or 'practised' enough. We will never be able to say that we have reached grade eight, or that we have left the grades behind and are now embarked on an advanced training.
A writer of fiction is really... a congenital liar who invents from his own knowledge or that of other men.