Amandla Stenberg Walked Away from 'Black Panther' Because of Her Light Skin Tone

Even though it’s a hard decision, Amandla Stenberg has no problem walking away from an amazing movie role if she knows she’s not the right actress for the part.

The 19-year-old Everything, Everything star says that she was up for a role in Black Panther, but felt she couldn’t continue with the audition process as she was not right for the project.

“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.