Daniel Kaluuya has said he was 15 when he decided he was on his own and could not rely on the government for help.
The British Oscar nominee said he realised he would have to take care of himself and could not look to politicians to protect and represent him.
He told the Press Association: “I kind of made that decision at 15 of well I’ll just do what I want. I’m on my own. Got to get on with it.
“It’s that thing where where I can’t look at the government because you should be giving me this, I don’t know the government.
“I’ve never met Boris [Johnson]. Why should I expect Boris to give me some money?
“That don’t make no sense. I’m not sure how much I even like him.
“I actually don’t know him to even not like him. But it’s that thing where it just doesn’t make sense, for me, because I’ve never seen them ever represent me or anyone from where I’m from in a nice way.”
The actor is currently starring in Widows, Steve McQueen’s modern retelling of a 1980s miniseries by Lynda La Plante.
He said: “I think these are the films that will just last forever. There’s corruption, and politics, and power, and inequality, and injustice, that’s like the themes that are littered within Shakespeare.
“It’s the themes that are littered within Ibsen, it’s the themes that are littered within Chekov. It’s like love, and grief, that’s what makes us human, and I feel like it captures 2018, but what I love about it is it’s classic, so it will continue on.”
In the film, Kaluuya plays the menacing Jatemme Manning, the brother and henchman for a local gangster who is now running for local office.
He said: “It’s nice that people want you to challenge yourself and want you to stretch and believe that you can.
“Because when it came through and I had to do takes for it, it was like ‘Oh I can do this, there’s something in here but I just haven’t really been given the opportunity to, for whatever reason’.
“It’s a fascinating character to play and to get the logic of why he does what he does, and the attitude towards it that I think is the most scary about him.”
Widows is out now.