DAVID OYELOWO
“STUDIOS DIDN’T WAKE UP IN TIME TO THE FACT THAT IT’S ABOUT A GLOBAL AUDIENCE…”
When Total Film catches up with David Oyelowo in June 2021, he’s just returned to his home in LA after a trip to the UK. Not that he’s showing any signs of jetlag. Every bit as eloquent and measured as you’d expect, he’s also surprisingly forthright, particularly when it comes to issues of representation on screen, studios’ shortcomings and the roadblocks his career faced in the UK (hence the move to LA).
If some of his most important projects have faced resistance, his tenacity and dedication has borne out some remarkable films/performances, including Martin Luther King Jr. bio-drama Selma and historical romance A United Kingdom. His feature directorial debut, The Water Man, was another such passion project. Oyelowo was originally attached to produce and star, but an unexpected vacancy in the director’s chair saw him step up to the helm.
“We essentially had a ‘go’ movie, but then our director decided he wanted to go off and do a bigger film,” he explains. “It meant we were sort of left in the lurch in a sense. If we didn’t go in that window, there was a real chance the film would fall apart.”
Oyelowo also has a key on-screen role in the Amblin-esque fantasy-tinged drama, which premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. He plays the father of protagonist Gunner (Lonnie Chavis), a young boy who goes on a quest with friend Jo (Amiah Miller) to find ‘the Water Man’, a mythical being who might have the power to cure Gunner’s sick mother Mary (Rosario Dawson). A throwback to the days when family movies didn’t talk down to kids, it’s character-driven and surprisingly emotional. “This is a very passion-driven endeavour for me – especially as a director,” he says.
Born in England to Nigerian parents in 1976, Oyelowo spent several years of his childhood in Nigeria. His acting career started on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and his screen career was kickstarted by BBC One’s Spooks. Work with directors like Lee Daniels, Christopher McQuarrie, J.C. Chandor, Steven Spielberg and Christopher Nolan followed, and Oyelowo began carving out a side role as a producer.
He selects work via a rule of thumb he dubs ‘the three Ps’: “the part, the people, and the project. And the most important one is the people. Being
