ASHTON SANDERS

I auditioned for 'Moonlight' without knowing anything. I went in the room, and I didn't know the lines as well as I should have. I didn't know a thing about the script. I wasn't told anything. I heard it was a low-budget film, and my agent told me to do it. I was super-ignorant to it.

I definitely wasn't the kid playing sports. I was super different.

I like to have fun and be myself and express myself through how I dress.

There's so many strict ideas and rules, whether it's from religion or it's just generations and generations.

I feel like a lot of black men 'put on' because of what they see and because of what people tell them they have to be.

I was bullied in elementary to middle school. It messed with my self esteem.

It's going to sound cliche, but I started acting as an emotional outlet.

I grew up doing theatre, where I was jumping in and out of plays, year round.

I'd say my heart is more in independents, but sometimes these major films come along that are pretty good, you know?

There's so much in American history that has been hidden and shunned.

I want to keep doing projects that speak for people within the community and tell different types of meaningful stories.

There are so many stereotypes of how you have to be as a black man, growing up in the community as a man.

I'm very much of an individual myself, and I do things sometimes that the next person probably won't, or wouldn't, do because they're not me.

I didn't know that '12 Years a Slave' was being filmed at the same time we were making 'The Retrieval.'

America isn't made for the black man.

To be able to inspire somebody just by doing something that you love, just by creating your art, is something that's very near and dear to my heart.

I bury things in the back of my mind I don't really want to deal with.

A lot of these artists are out here don't stay true to why they started doing this in the first place.

We're raised to believe that black men have to be one specific way.

The sad reality of it is, as black artists in the industry, we still have to work 10 times harder to get our voices out there.

I wasn't like the rest of the kids. I was an artist. Living in a black society, when you're raised around a bunch of boys who plays sports and chase girls, there's this perception of masculinity that's super hard to fit into. I wasn't the stereotype of that like a lot of my peers were.

I wanna be Mahershala Ali in my next life. He's the man. He's a really genuine guy. He's a really great guy, one of my favorite people on this planet.

I do my own thing, and a lot of people don't. I just move my own way.

It's awesome that my job is to make people have reactions.

We all have perceptions or boxes that we put each other in.