David Oyelowo
David Oyelowo
David Oyetokunbo Oyelowo, OBE is a African actor and producer. He has played supporting roles in the films Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Middle of Nowhere, Lincoln, and garnered praise for portraying Louis Gaines in The Butler. On television, he played MI5 officer Danny Hunter in the British series Spooks, and as of 2014, provides the voice of Imperial Security Bureau Agent Kallus on the animated series Star Wars Rebels. In 2014, Oyelowo played Martin Luther King, Jr...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionTV Actor
Date of Birth1 April 1976
CityOxford, England
amazing character civil exciting forest great incredibly june oprah phenomenal radical rights role script start wife work
We start 'The Butler' in June and that's incredibly exciting for me because I get to work with the amazing Forest Whitaker again. It's a phenomenal script and a great, great role - I play his son. Oprah Winfrey is his wife and my mother. My character is a radical civil rights activist.
ability against audience believe deliver lips master people row skills theater whites
One of the skills you have to master in theater is the ability to make the audience believe that things that aren't there are there - just like when you're acting against CGI. Also, in a theater, the people in the back row can't see the whites of your eyes. Or your lips moving as you deliver dialogue.
past deny empowered
We can't afford to deny our past in a bid to be empowered. But what we can do is contextualize the past.
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Excellence is the best weapon against prejudice.
nice opportunity order
I turned down a lot of easier opportunities in order to go for the things that I really and ultimately wanted to do. And what's really nice is that it's starting to work. I've been an actor for coming up on 14 years now and the level of activity that's taking place now is a culmination of a slow cooker approach to as opposed to a microwave.
excellent fine audience
Find the audience, be excellent, and you will be fine.
clothes tailors
I don't have a tailor, but I do love clothes.
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When you reflect upon the significance of Dr. King to this nation, it's criminal that he hasn't had a feature film that was centered around him until now. That, in and of itself, was emotional. But when you're doing scenes on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, with people still living in Selma and now in their 60s and 70s who had actually marched, who were there that original Bloody Sunday, that's humbling... that's deeply moving. You're no longer acting at that stage, you're just reacting, because it takes the filmmaking process to another dimension.
dog brother children
My parents are very hard working people who did everything they could for their children. I have two brothers and they worked dog hard to give us an education and provide us with the most comfortable life possible. My dad provided for his family daily. So, yes, that is definitely in my DNA.
moving civilization community
There are many, many communities, many ethnic minorities, many civilizations that have been brutalised by others and you have to move on. You cannot perpetually stay in that place of blame, otherwise it's just a downward spiral.
historical black stories
I have a bee in my bonnet as to how few black historical figures one sees on film; incredible stories, stories from which we are living the legacy and which just don't get made.
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I'm one of those actors who says, "Point me toward the work that matters to me and I don't care where you're putting it. Television show. Movie. Projected on the back of someone's garage." If that's where the work is that's exciting to me and moving, I want to be there.
kings believe thinking
I think what a lot of people don't realize is how much being the leader of this movement weighed upon him. After all, he [Dr. Martin Luter King] was only 39 years-old when he was assassinated, and only 36 during the Selma campaign. He always seemed older than he actually was, and I believe part of that had to do with just how much life he had to live in order to lead this movement.