papermagazine:"You see a brown man and the first thing you see...

papermagazine:

"You see a brown man and the first thing you see is that. You know? He just looks like another black guy. But I put on a mask and suddenly that’s what people ask about. They don’t talk to me like a black person. I’m trying to communicate a lot of things by wearing a mask. It’s probably conventionally pretentious but I don’t mind being pretentious a little bit. Kanye West doesn’t mind."

— Willis Earl Beal on his new film Memphis and his perma-mask