Naomie Harris Quotes

I love Sam Mendes. He's a fantastic director.

Powerful women are the most interesting to play.

To have the kind of success I have had is really amazing, and I am incredibly grateful.

It is great to be a part of big-budget movies, but it is harder to feel like you are contributing, in the sense that it has such big machinery behind it.

One of the saddest aspects for me about filming in South Africa was that the real inequalities are still very much in place - and those are economic inequalities.

I've never been that person who wants a Rolls Royce or wants to live in a mansion or what have you.

At Cambridge, it was the weirdest culture. Everyone pretended they didn't do any work, yet it was so competitive.

I'm not the greatest driver. I don't know if I'll ever master the art.

When you film in Africa, it's almost like a character in and of itself because it is so beautiful and has this special magic that I've never experienced anywhere else. There is something so incredibly beautiful about the light.

Only do acting, if you don't want to do anything else. And know that it's a tough journey with a lot of rejection along the way. You have to have a lot of self-belief.

I really, really love Daniel Craig as Bond.

Be open and honest, but perceptive to your boss's situation. That's my advice to graduates worried about working with a new boss.

I cry at random things, like a flower, or someone giving me a present, or my sister giving me a nice hug.

When I have finished a job, done all the promotion, and it's been received well. Then I can allow myself the luxury of a break, and chilling out with my family and friends, and taking a nice break knowing I've done a good job.

Acting is a career without a safety net, because it's not like a professional job where every year you hope to be promoted, and get a sense of career stability. There is never any stability in this business.

[I like to cook] Shepherd's pie, which is a classic British dish. But my version reflects my Jamaican roots, because I add jerk to it as well.

I really like Roland Moret, Alexander McQueen and Marios Schwab, a young British designer.

I'm always looking for the comfiest place to lie down, like a cat.

I like to believe that we all pray to the same god.

I definitely felt frightened [on Skyfall], but never in danger, because they were always so careful about everything. Some of the driving, particularly on that road around the sheer-drop cliff was actually done by stunt driver Ben Collin, who is otherwise known as The Stig from the TV show Pop Gear. He's a brilliant drive, nonetheless, it was terrifying to be careening along when a wrong turn would mean a thousand-foot drop and you're not in control and you want to slow the car down.

It was also great shooting in London at Pinewood Studios because of all its history. So many of the 007 movies were filmed there, as well as classics by everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Jack Nicholson to Martin Scorcese. It's like working on hallowed ground. So, I felt a responsibility to make sure I did as good a job as I possibly could.

People are already describing it [Skyfall] as the best Bond flick ever, and I really think it will be.

Kids should be naughty and go through that rebellious phase I didn't have.

I try to be upbeat. I read this book which tells you to write down everything that you're grateful for each day. Now I'm constantly noticing all the little things that make me joyful.

I'd like to believe that I would be able to give in the same way Mandela did, but in reality, I don't know whether that is true. It is much more likely that I would be left with an immense sense of injustice and immense desire for revenge.

I usually look in my eyes to tell the truth of how I'm feeling that day.

In some ways, except that in that movie [Skyfall] I was mostly screaming and running away from the bad guys, whereas in this one I'm generally jumping into the action and fighting with them. So, yeah, it was somewhat similar, but also very different.

I don't why I was bullied. I was quite shy and skinny. Very nerdy, very bookwormish. I think I was just a target.

Mandela is this extraordinary individual who can inspire the world. Instead of wanting revenge after being brutalized, he showed the world how to forgive.

For some reason I just lack that ability to be embarrassed about going up to people. I even do it for friends if they want to ask someone out.

What interests Sam Mendes are characters and relationships, and he was a genius at giving you the freedom to create the type of character you want, and also to explore and have fun with your fellow actors. For him, characters and relationships are really the heartbeat of the film, and then the action is the backdrop. By developing the characters, he makes you care that much more about the action and going on a journey with the characters.

I wanted to play roles which offered new ways of viewing black women and black people in general- and I have done that. And I have always, whether I needed to pay the rent or not, I've always turned down roles which I thought were stereotypical. And so when I look at my body of work in that respect, I am really happy. Because I feel my work does say something positive and that was what I always set out to do.

I am always interested in affecting people in some way, making them think about particular areas of history that they have never thought about or that they may have thought about in one way and then changing their view.

I have many different sides; I can be the life and soul of the party - or a wallflower.

The education is the answer to everything, really, and on so many different levels. The minutiae of life require analytical skills that you learn in being educated, an ability to navigate the very systems that constitute life. They all require some degree of education, and if you don't get it, you're at a real disadvantage.

I don't think I have the assets to play the more traditional Bond Girl.

It's true about the eyes being the window to the soul. Your face can be etched with worry, and twisted by ageing, but the eyes tell the true story of who you are.

I started acting when I was seven. And I went to a local drama school which is very well-known in London. Because of that, I started getting jobs, and I worked all the time as a child, pretty much non-stop.

You don't want to just preach to people; you want to get them emotionally involved, and I think you do that with a wonderful human story about one person's struggle.

Without education, you really can't dream as a child.

As a society we should be encouraging people out of the debt-culture mindset, not promoting it.

I'm always interested in telling stories that have a message because I really do believe that film is so powerful.

People have very strong opinions about how their national icons should be played.

I live on the same street as my family, actually. I live across the road. I'm a real family person!

You don't need to follow trends to be stylish.

I was really nervous, because I was certain it was going to be bigger than anything I'd ever done before. But I was relieved when I actually discovered that there was a family atmosphere on the set, with a brother-sister team, Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson running it all.

What I generally get from being in Africa is a sense of warmth and openness. As a stranger, you are always welcomed into people's homes and people are always offering you food. That generosity is incredibly touching.

If you educate children, then they are capable of so much - you empower them, you give them choices, and you enable them to create the lives that they dream for themselves.