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Daniel Kaluuya Says Ashley Walters Inspired Him to Become an Actor Despite Being ‘Sidelined’ by the Industry: ‘You Get Defined by Your Mistakes, Especially if You’re Black’

Daniel Kaluuya gave a screen talk at the London Film Festival and gave praise to his host Ashley Walters for inspiring his early career

Speaking to fellow actor and close friend Ashley Walters (“Top Boy,” “Bulletproof,” “Get Rich of Die Tryin'”), the Oscar-winner took time to salute his Screen Talk host, someone he said had provided a major inspiration when he was just starting out in the mid-2000s. Many years later, Kaluuya’s said watching Benicio Del Toro on the set of “Sicario” changed his approach to acting, particularly in terms how his co-star would cut his lines in the script in favour of physically expressing what he was trying to convey. After breaking out in Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” in 2017, Kaluuya starred in Marvel’s “Black Panther”; Shaka King’s “Judas and the Black Messiah,” for which he won the Oscar for best supporting actor; and Peele’s most recent directorial effort “Nope.” Kaluuya also lent his voice to 2023’s superhero sequel “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” as Spider-Punk, a role that he’s set to reprise in the franchise’s forthcoming third film, “Beyond the Spider-Verse.”

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