Ashton Sanders

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

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.

It's my job as an artist and as an actor to use this platform to make people learn and grow, to change their perspectives on how things are in whatever way I can.

It's really crazy looking back on my bullies or whoever was trying to torment me or tease me, because karma is just, like, crazy.

I think it's cool to be different. That's what cool is.

Anything that's outside the standard of the average black male is looked down upon. For me, I wasn't raised playing sports. I was artistic, so that was looked down upon by people in my church, and I was teased for that growing up in school, so it goes both ways.

America isn't made for the black man.

I think that's the most important part of doing this job, is learning different personality types. I mean, it's kind of like sociology or psychology in a sense. With that, and with every project I do, I think I'm able to pull something away that further makes me understand humanity in a way I didn't before.

I had high hopes for 'Moonlight,' just off the reaction I had while reading the script.

My whole life has changed so much, and it's still constantly changing, but 'Moonlight' brought about a bunch of opportunities that were really surreal, from the Oscars and Golden Globes to the notoriety that it brought, to even doing things like working with Calvin Klein.

'Moonlight' has changed my life externally but also internally... spiritually as well.

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

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.

If you noticed, I wear high-water pants and white socks, which is inspired by the mod '60s, like the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Jimi Hendrix, what have you. That style of dress during that time is really, really dope to me.

I like to dress the way I like to dress. I kind of like rebelling against the social norms... I feel uncomfortable wearing just, like, regular stuff.

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.

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

Sometimes people are vulnerable. And that's fine.

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

I would just encourage my younger self to not care about people's perceptions and to love myself fully and to keep progressing and striving for what you are going to become.

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 don't think things will lead me astray, as long as I'm tapped into myself.

Despite everything that's going on, people need love.