‘United’ personal for Oyelowo
Like film’s character, actor’s prince father followed his heart
With politics LOS ANGELES railing against you, can love conquer all?
In A United Kingdom, history leans toward “yes.” The drama (in theaters Friday) from director Amma Asante chronicles a Botswana-born prince (David Oyelowo) who falls for a white British woman (Rosamund Pike) while studying in the U.K. in 1947 and who, after marrying her, must choose between relinquishing his crown or fighting for a way forward in Africa.
It’s a true story, and a personal one for the actor.
“My father was a prince and he’s a wonderful man. He taught me most of what I know about love,” says Oyelowo, 40, who learned that his father, Stephen Oyelowo, of the Yoruba tribe, was royal when the family moved back to Nigeria during his childhood. “When I happened upon the story of Seretse Khama and Ruth (Williams), what I was so compelled by is how their love for each other truly changed that nation and won over countries, politics, tribalism and family.”
Pressured by the U.K. and nearby South Africa, the latter of which had recently introduced apartheid, Khama was forced into exile as a result of his marriage. He launched a parliamentary fight to return home. (Botswana was a protectorate of Britain at the time.)
Like Khama, Oyelowo’s father chose a non-traditional path, marrying an African commoner and eloping to Britain, where David was born. “They did that for love and I’m the byproduct of that love. So the story really speaks to me,” says Oyelowo, who lived in Nigeria from ages 6 to 13.
Following the actor’s critically acclaimed turn as Martin Luther King Jr. in 2014’s
Selma and his role as a mentor in 2016’s Queen of
Katwe, which chronicled the rise of a chess prodigy born in the slums of Uganda,
A United Kingdom is the next cinematic stop in Oyelowo’s focus on expanding black representation in film.
“So often in cinematic representations of Africa that make their way over to America, what you see is the worst: child soldiers, genocide, corrupt leaders, disease, poverty,” he says. “It’s almost always a white male who is the center of the narrative, while we watch Africans suffer or behave badly in the background.”
Oyelowo recently became a U.S. citizen, having lived in L.A. for 10 years with his wife, Jessica and their four children, ages 15, 12, 8 and 5. The actor calls President Trump’s immigration ban “disquieting.”
“This nation is a nation of immigrants,” he says, “and the Constitution is pretty clear as it pertains to freedom of religion, as it pertains to the basis on which you cannot discriminate against people.”
With a threat of return to such tactics as stop-and-frisk (Trump voiced support for the controversial policy during his campaign), “you have to talk to your black sons about how to interact with the police in a way that if I were a white man with white sons, I don’t think I would (have to) think about doing that.” Seventy years later, A United
Kingdom’s story remains relevant. “When I traverse the country, my wife (who is white) and I are fine. (But) there have been places we’ve been that there’s a discernible level of distaste around the fact that we are married. So these stories are very relevant,” he says. “They are both timely and timeless, unfortunately.”
A smile crosses his face. “But, in my life, all I have to do is look at my children to know that this is right; to know that this is good.”