A MAN OF CONVICTION
David Oyelowo didn’t want to glorify a violent criminal in ‘Captive’
Actor David Oyelowo was careful not to glamorize a brazen shootout scene in his latest film.
“Captive,” opening Friday, kicks off with the real-life 2005 rampage in which Brian Nichols gunned down a judge and three others to escape an Atlanta courthouse where he was awaiting trial — a scene that unfolds with all the nail-biting excitement of a Bond movie sequence.
Considering the country’s current struggles with gun violence, that’s the last association the deeply spiritual Oyelowo wants audiences to get out of a drama about redemption.
“Brian Nichols was a heavily built guy, a former football player, so I had really buff up to play him,” the British actor, who drew acclaim for his portrayal of Martin Luther King Jr. in “Selma,” tells The News. “He did really break out of the courthouse in a black suit with no shirt on underneath. He did escape with two guns in his hands. All of those elements in your average movie, you’re looking at that being the hero... that being the guy who you’re wanting to root for.
“So one of the things that we had to really focus on, and I certainly paid a lot of attention to, was not glorifying anything he did or glamorizing it,” adds the father of four. “Just making it as coldblooded as it was.”
Oyelowo, 39, said that was one of the biggest challenges of the role for him, and “one of the reasons why I wanted to be a producer on the film is that tone is going to have to be something that one had to really keep an eye on.”
Inspired by true events, “Captive” is based on the memoir of Ashley Smith (Kate Mara) — a single mom trying desperately to kick her meth habit and reconnect with God — whose life is forever changed when she’s taken hostage in her apartment by Nichols after he gunned down four and escaped the courthouse.
As a Brit who moved to Los Angeles in 2007, Oyelowo can’t wrap his mind around the mass shootings that plague the U.S. “It is something that is very much a culture shock and eight years into living in America, it’s something I’m still getting used to,” says Oyelowo, “because I grew up in a culture where there just isn’t the same proliferation of gun culture and crime.” That doesn’t mean Oyelowo is gun shy about taking on action roles.
To date, Oyelowo is the only actor of color to portray James Bond, voicing the British superspy in the audio book of the latest 007 novel, “Trigger Mortis.” The gig gives him perspective on the whole debate over whether black British actor Idris Elba should inherit the film part after current Bond Daniel Craig exits the franchise. Elba’s association with the role stems from being name-checked in a secret email from then-Sony Entertainment co-chair Amy Pascal that was leaked during the hacking of the studio’s servers in December.
If he did get recruited to play Bond, Elba would be the first actor of color to play the spy, a landmark that has caused grumbling from critics like Rush Limbaugh, who argue Bond should continue to be played as a white character, as first envisioned by creator Ian Fleming.
“I don’t fantasize about playing Bond, but I fantasize about a world in which someone like me or like Idris Elba has the opportunity to play that kind of role,” says Oyelowo. “I think that the great thing about all of this conversation is that it’s very clear that the audience is speaking to our industry and those with greenlight ability and content creators and writers and producers that they want to see someone like Idris Elba, who is a perfect leading man, as a lead.
“I personally think that the conversation should move away from Bond itself,” he adds, “and to the sheer amount of white actors who get opportunities time and again, both in failure and success. There isn’t and hasn’t been a robust enough move in my opinion towards someone like Idris Elba having his Jason Bourne or his James Bond opportunity.”
As he dabbles in producing, Oyelowo may have more a say going forward.
For “Captive,” Oyelowo used his clout as producer to recruit his good off-screen friend Mara to play Smith,
allowing them to collaborate for the first time since he directed her in the 2009 short, “Big Guy.” But given the actor’s penchant for really getting into his roles, the intense hostage scenes on “Captive” tested that friendship.
“The first time when he grabs me and pulls me into my apartment and throws me on the couch, that really did hurt,” says Mara. “He gave me whiplash from that. I remember that being intense, because he wasn’t holding back. And obviously, as soon as they yelled, ‘Cut,’ he was like, ‘Oh my God, are you okay?’
“My response was, ‘No, that f-----g hurt, but we should probably do that again... It was kind of funny to see him go back and forth from being this very aggressive man to being the real David, who is just very warm and lovely.”
The movie was shot in late 2013, before the career breakthrough that came last year with “Selma,” in which Oyelowo transformed himself into Martin Luther King for a drama about a seminal time in the American civil rights movement. Though the movie was largely snubbed at the Academy Awards, he’s proud that the release of the movie — shortly after the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in Staten Island — helped start a national discussion on race.
A photo of Oyelowo and other “Selma” castmembers in “I Can’t Breathe” t-shirts — a reference to Garner’s last words while being put in an illegal chokehold by a cop — at the film’s New York premiere last December, caused controversy just as the predominantly white Academy voting body was mulling its choices.
“I personally think it’s ironic that when a film that is about racial injustice and is about not giving the right to vote is marginalized in other courses even within the industry, I think it just goes to show that it’s a real thing, the battle continues,” Oyelowo says about the fact that “Selma” scored just one major Oscar category nod (Best Picture), but was snubbed for Best Actor (Oyelowo) and Best Director (Ava Du Vernay).
His recent run of success has also led to off-screen friendships with A-listers, like his co-star on 2013’s “The Butler,” Oprah Winfrey, and his “Selma” executive producer Brad Pitt. Oyelowo, his wife Jessica and their kids have enjoyed the surreal, yet oddly normal experience of having playdates with Pitt, his wife Angelina Jolie and their brood.
“I like to think of myself as a very real person and I’m not in a hurry to hang out with people who aren’t that,” says Oyelowo.
“The amazing thing about Oprah is that behind the fame, behind all that, she represents a truly beautiful human being who I love just hanging out with.”