Amandla Stenberg – I Gave Up On ‘Black Panther’ Role Because I’m Light Skinned

Amandla Stenberg – I Gave Up On ‘Black Panther’ Role Because I’m Light Skinned

In a new interview Amandla Stenberg reveals that she gave up a role on ‘Black Panther’. The actress, activist and filmmaker, who is biracial, admits that her light complexion had everything to do with her NOT pursuing a role in the hit Marvel film.

Chadwick Boseman

The film stars brown skinned people of color including Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Daniel Kaluuya and Angela Bassett.

Amandla Stenberg

The 19-year-old explains,

One of the most challenging things for me to do was to walk away from Black Panther. I got really, really close and they were like, ‘do you want to continue fighting for this?’ And I was like, this isn’t right. These are all dark skin actors playing Africans and I feel like it would have just been off to see m as a bi-racial American with a Nigerian accent just pretending that I’m the same colour as everyone else in the movie.

She continued,

That was really challenging, to make that decision, but I have no regrets. I recognize 100 per cent that there are spaces that I should not take up and when I do take up a space it’s because I’ve thought really, really critically about it and I’ve consulted people I really trust and it feels right.

Should Amandla have given up on the role? 

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