Yahya Abdul-Mateen II

"My father [Yahya Abdul-Mateen] prayed for his parents every day and took them along the journey with them"

"I can only hope to do the same, and one way I can do that is by holding on to the second [in my name], because that means you have to acknowledge the first too: my father"

"My name is not the name you’d pick out of a hat – Yahya Abdul-Mateen the second is no John Wayne, it’s not traditionally the guy at the top of the billing. And that’s why it’s so inspiring to people. I get messages all the time saying, ‘Thank you brother for representing for us Muslims. I was thinking about changing my name, but now that I see you, I’ll never change it"

"For a lot of aspiring actors and artists around the world, America is the destination, the comparison"

"So to have my name at the top of the billing on my own for Candyman, right up there on Aquaman, and next to Keanu Reeves in a big production like The Matrix is huge. To be validated, to hold my own, and to go on talk shows where they say my entire name, that’s inspiring"

"I remembered that acting thing I had a really fun time with when I took the class and I said ‘Okay, I’m going to go try that for a little bit"

"I’m so thankful every day"

"I got off to a really fast start ... I kind of just skyrocketed out of graduate school"

"It's 1:00 a.m., and I'm trying to get her to be quiet, but she's still screaming, so I just stopped and let her walk"

"I knew there was no rationalizing with this person. Two minutes later, I walked up to the studio and sat down at a computer. I saw her across the room, but she wouldn’t make eye contact"

"I went back to my computer to work, and I remember being so angry that I cried"

"It was frustrating. I deserved to be there. Period. That was my reminder that even if I did everything right -- played the game by the book -- some things in life would be unavoidable. Because I was Black. I was 18 years old. I did the only thing I knew to do. I cried, and I swallowed that s**t"

"With my therapist, I wanted to be able to talk about being Black. I wanted to be able to use my vernacular," he said. "I didn't want to have to explain what it felt like to have someone follow me around the store. I just wanted to talk about the fact that it happened and have that person understand"

"Black men—Black people in general—don’t have a reason to trust America. History will tell you that, at the end of the day, we’re going to be the first ones to be manipulated and systematically taken advantage of"

"There’s a stigma around mental health in the Black community, particularly with men, that means we don’t talk about how we’re feeling, and it was strange to be around Black people who openly discussed seeing a therapist"

"There was this collective curiosity that I didn’t even know was there. Historic disenfranchisement kept those resources out of reach to the point that many believed that our rejection of therapy was primarily cultural. I’m glad to see this narrative changing. We’ve got a lot of internal healing to do in this world, and therapy is going to be a big part of that. With the right relationship, therapy can be a safe space where we can be heard and seen in a world that too often chooses not to hear or see us"

"We need people like myself with a platform to continue to speak out and to be standing and doing the right thing. And so sometimes I question whether or not I’m doing the right thing by being away from America right now. I donate my money, my time. I use my platform to amplify others’ voices, and sometimes that feels like it isn’t enough. I want to be on the ground. The people I love, my family, my close friends, the Black women in my life—they tell me to be kind to myself, to stay informed, and to stay ready. So that’s what I try to do for now"

"Black Family, don’t feel guilty for laughing and feeling joy today. We need that too"

"Everything should be about getting to the truth. But sometimes you got to know which movie or genre you’re in,"

"That world is enormous. And I joined that world way into that run; a train that was already moving. Normally, I come in way early on and I get to figure it out…I was freaking out. It was a scene with [Samuel L.] Jackson, Tom [Holland]…there were a number of actors in that scene. And I remember not being able to remember my lines. I was the wooden board. And they were like, ‘Whoa"

"I didn’t want to show up like, ‘I have a confession,’ so I taught myself"

"[Watchmen] was also a story about a god who came down to earth to reciprocate to a Black woman all the love that she deserved"

"He'd offer her sacrifice and support, passion [and] protection. And he did all that in the body of a Black man. I'm so proud that I was able to walk into those shoes"

"So I dedicate this award to all the Black women in my life"

"The people who believed in me first — I call you my early investors. I love you. I appreciate you. And this one is for you. Thank you"

"It's important to listen to Black women because they got the answers"

"There was such a wide variety of subject matter that it kept me on the hook. That was something that I could call my friends and family and talk about. I feel like television and film were very important over quarantine; for me, that became a way to connect to other people. And instead of talking about sports or talking about whatever event was going on, or where we were going—the variety of things that can happen in a day—my conversations, a lot of the time, switched to television"

"I saw a lot of people validate the history of trauma in this country, and the ways in which a traumatic event can happen to someone in one generation, and two generations later you see their offspring or their grandchildren still dealing with that. To me, that idea is very important to legitimize because we live in a society, in America specifically, that is so much in a rush to move past all the dark parts of its history. There’s so much of a rush to just put that behind us, that it often causes us to ignore, to not deal with it. And it causes us to not be able to realize the way that we still perpetuate it and create an environment for that trauma to continue to exist and persist"

"There’s a lot of work out there, which makes for a wide variety of creativity and conversation. And most of all, employment, for a lot of really, really good actors"

"I woke up two months ago and said “Whoa, whoa whoa! I’m an actor, how"

"A few months ago I was still in school and no one knew who I was and now I’m on a show and my publicist is calling me! It’s so exciting. I’m just taking things day by day."

"I’m the youngest of six kids and I grew up with a lot of noise, a lot of music and a lot of laughter"

"My father was Muslim and my mom is Christian, and we moved from New Orleans to Oakland, so I always had this appreciation for different cultures. Between those dichotomies and with eight people living in the house together, there was always drama. But it was enjoyable drama"

"I think it would be irresponsible of me to not be aware of the climate [in Hollywood] when it comes to the conversation about diversity"

"But I like to consider myself an actor, and one of the assets that I have is that I’m black. And that I’m 6’3″! I just want to do work that gets people excited and makes them feel things, no matter their economic or racial background"