Daniel Kaluuya has been a household name in the United States since his breakout role in Jordan Peele’s 2017 movie, Get Out. Although he continues to conquer our movie screens with films like Black Panther and Queen & Slim, success did not come easy for Kaluuya overseas in his home country of England. The British actor was met with racism as he went into the acting field.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Kaluuya opened up about how he was passed up for roles because of the color of his skin and how a “white guy” who was up for the same role as him was given preferential treatment.
“I was going for a lot of stuff [in England]. But I wasn’t getting roles because of the color of my skin. It wasn’t fair. It was a trap,” he said.
“For example, I went up for this show. It was 10 rounds of auditions. There was me and a white guy for the lead. It was about aliens. And I realized as I was going to one audition that the other guy had been given an acting coach. They didn’t love me like they loved him.”
He added, “In any other profession, that would be weird, but it was accepted in mine. It happened a few times, and I went, ‘Nah. I’m not an idiot.’”
Less than a week ago, the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) were called out for their lack of diversity in its major categories. In 2018, Kaluuya was nominated for BAFTA’s Rising Star Award. That same year, a report found that 94% of all BAFTA nominees were white.
Kaluuya is set to release a biopic next year where he portrays American activist Fred Hampton. He is also set to produce a live-action movie based on “Barney & Friends” main character Barney.