Stephan James & Shamier Anderson Boost Black Excellence

SJ: I mean, look, if I was 7′ 2″, I’d be playing basketball in the NBA. I don’t really know the answer to those questions. But at the end of the day, when I look at the work that I’ve done, what’s important to me is when everyone wants to say, “Oh, he’s the first who’s been able to do these sorts of things,” that I don’t want to be the last. When I was on stage at the Canadian Screen Awards a few years ago accepting the Radius award, as blissful as that moment was, I couldn’t help but think, Man, I’m probably one of a handful — if that — of Black individuals that are going to step on the stage tonight. That didn’t sit well with me. It didn’t sit well with my brother. I’m humbled by the opportunities that I’ve been able to get in my career, but what’s important to me is being able to create more opportunities so that the barriers that I had to jump through getting out of Canada and garnering a certain amount of success in the United States aren’t there anymore. We want to stop that perpetual loop for other artists or other individuals coming out of this city and out of this country who are building incredible things.