David the Goliath
From MLK to 007, David Oyelowo on his eclectic CV
DAVID OYELOWO IS a man of many voices. In recent years, he’s assumed the accents of upper-class British assassins, Nigerian middle managers, Americans aplenty, and even the odd alien. It can seem as if the only one he hasn’t used is his own (middle-class north Londoner). “I think the last time may have been Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes,” laughs the 42-year-old. “I almost never use my own accent, to the point where I’m concerned I may need a dialect coach if I’m playing a Brit!” The accents have come in handy for Oyelowo in building an impressive, and groundbreaking, career. Here he talks us through seven of his most memorable roles.
Yardley Acheman The Paperboy (2012)
Lee Daniels spent years trying to make Selma, with Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr, before giving up in frustration. He turned to this sleazy, sweaty potboiler and brought Oyelowo with him to play a journalist who is much more than he seems. “One of the unexpected choices we ended up making was that initially you think Yardley is British,” laughs Oyelowo. “Then, in a very bizarre twist, you realise he’s been faking the whole time and he’s actually African-american!” Oyelowo based his hybrid accent on ’60s Bonds like Connery and Lazenby. “I thought, ‘Yardley’s watched a lot of Bond movies.’ It was a mindbending thing.”
Corporal Ira Clerk Lincoln (2012)
In a film dominated by its title character, Oyelowo made an impact in one scene: as the soldier who recites the Gettysburg Address to Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day-lewis) on the battlefield. “It was the most nervous I’ve been since drama school,” he admits. Oyelowo prepped hard, learning the Gettysburg Address inside out, and watching Day-lewis (“my favourite actor”) at close quarters. “In that one scene with him, I got part of the blueprint to play Dr King. I could feel the investment he had put in to play Lincoln.”
School Principal Interstellar (2014)
2014 was something of a breakthrough year for Oyelowo. Buried among the lead roles and car chases with Tom Cruise, though, is a one-scene appearance as a concerned head teacher in Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi epic. “I’ve always believed the way you learn as an actor is to be around people who are much better than you,” he says of a role so small, he didn’t even get to read a script. “So I had no idea why there was dust all over the classroom!” Since making the movie, he and Nolan have become friends. “He’s someone I get to talk to about film. That was a very good investment as far as I was concerned.”
Agent Kallus Star Wars Rebels (2014)
When Oyelowo signed on to voice the evil Kallus in Dave Filoni’s Star Wars cartoon, he didn’t expect to be still around by the time the show finished this year, let alone for Kallus to have morphed into a good guy. “I would never know which direction the character was going to go until I went into the recording session,” he says. Star Wars passed him by as a child; something George Lucas, with whom Oyelowo worked on
2012’s Red Tails, rectified. “He proceeded to send me boatloads of DVDS and toys for my children. I felt bad that my new boss had found out I didn’t know anything about it.”
Dr Martin Luther King Jr Selma (2014)
At last, Oyelowo got to play MLK, after Ava Duvernay took over the directorial reins from Lee Daniels. And while his layered, humanising portrait of such an iconic figure was shamefully ignored by the Academy, it’s the defining role of his career. “It had to be from the outside in, because the outer shell, the speeches, the preacher, the icon, we all know that on a very surface level.” Seven years had passed between Oyelowo first reading the script and saying his first words as Dr King. “That afforded me the time I needed to go deeper, to the point whereby it became more about existing than depicting.”
James Bond Trigger Mortis (2015)
Much has been made of whether Idris Elba will become the first black Bond after Daniel Craig quits, but Oyelowo has beaten him to it by narrating the audiobook of Anthony Horowitz’ 007 novel. “I know what it feels like to swill that particular role in my mouth a bit,” he says. A Bond fan, Oyelowo decided to bring his own perspective to the role. “The challenge was to not go in and do a Connery or a Roger Moore or a Daniel Craig impression.” And he’s open to the idea of giving it a go on the big screen. “I love that it’s no longer such a far-fetched notion, that a black actor could be considered. That’s a wonderful thing to know has happened, let alone be one of the names thrown into the hat.”
Harold Soyinka Gringo (2018)
“If it’s not specified in the script the assumption is it’s a white male,” admits Oyelowo of Hollywood’s usual approach to casting. So it was something of a turn-up for the books that the bouncy, twisty screenplay for Gringo came his way, and that he was able to suggest Harold, the patsy at the middle of the labyrinthine plot, be Nigerian. (Oyelowo’s parents are from Nigeria). “That’s part of my experience. I didn’t want anything about that to feel pat,” he says. “We’ve seen this kind of character before but not wrapped in the skin of a Nigerian immigrant.”
GRINGO IS OUT ON 16 JULY ON DVD AND DOWNLOAD