Amandla Stenberg Explains Why She Dropped Out of 'Black Panther' Auditions

Amandla Stenberg says that she was in consideration for a role in Black Panther, but decided to drop out of the auditions because she’s biracial.

The 19-year-old actress, best known for Everything Everything and The Hunger Games, felt the roles should go to actors with dark skin.

“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,” Amandla told CBC. “These are all dark skin actors playing Africans and I feel like it would have just been off to see me as a bi-racial American with a Nigerian accent just pretending that I’m the same color as everyone else in the movie.”

Amandla added, “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.”

You can next see Amandla in the sci-fi thriller The Darkest Minds, in theaters this August.