Daniel Kaluuya Says Ashley Walters Inspired Him to Become an Actor Despite Being ‘Sidelined’ by the Industry: ‘You Get Defined by Your Mistakes, Especially if You’re Black’

From the article: Daniel Kaluuya discussed the early days of his career in a Screen Talk on the opening day of the BFI London Film Festival on Wednesday.

Speaking to fellow actor and close friend Ashley Walters (“Top Boy,” “Bulletproof,” “Get Rich of Die Tryin’”), the Oscar-winner took time to salute his Screen Talk host, someone he said had provided a major inspiration when he was just starting out in the mid-2000s.

It was seeing Walters’ face on the cover of a magazine while shopping in supermarket, Kaluuya said was the “moment I believed it could happen… I was like, ‘Oh, he looks like me.’”

While Kaluuya may be one of the best known British actors working today — and one with a statue recently unveiled in his honor in central London — he said it was Walters work and success on screen that “really gave me the kind of belief” that a career as an actor was possibly, suggesting Walters had been “sidelined” by the industry and hadn’t got the credit he deserved.

“They’ve not really taken in your craft and your work and how hard it is to do what you’ve done,” he said. “I’m adamant, because you make mistakes in your life and you get defined by your mistakes, especially if you’re Black. You never get defined by your work if you’ve made a mistake.”