Three years passed between David Oyelowo reading the script for "Selma" and being cast in the starring role as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Another four went by before the movie was made. But the now-38-year-old English actor never lost track of the role, keeping a file of articles, books, documentaries and other footage of the iconic civil rights leader. This also didn't hurt:
"I had [these] amazing circumstances of doing four films, which between them covered 150 years of black history in this country," says Oyelowo, who's nearly guaranteed a best actor Oscar nom for the film, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. "Playing a unionist soldier in 'Lincoln,' and then a fighter pilot in 'Red Tails,' and then a preacher in 'The Help,' and then covering the 20th century pretty much in '[Lee Daniels'] The Butler.'"
He's extraordinary in "Selma" (opening Friday), in which Dr. King leads protests in Selma, Ala., that result in the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The movie is great for many reasons, including, but not limited to, the contemporary relevance of unprosecuted police-on-black-citizen violence and the effort by 42-year-old director Ava DuVernay-expected to be the first-ever woman of color to earn a best director nomination-to portray King as a person, not a glowing, otherworldly hero.
David, did you find it more challenging to achieve something semi-tangible like Dr. King's voice or something more intangible like his authority and determination?
David Oyelowo: The intangible that was absolutely necessary to capture, which was by no means guaranteed, was, "Who is the man behind the voice and the physicality?" Those are all things that because they exist, because people have them as something to refer to, you can hold it.
But with Dr. King in particular as a human being there are intangibles. There is something going on with him when he's giving a speech. There is a reason that he's one of the most celebrated orators in history. It's because it's not just the words; it's the man from whom the words are coming and the conviction with which he is delivering them. That's what I had to go and find. And within the structure of what we were trying to do, who is that man when he is at home with his wife and kids? Who is that man when he is in a moment of doubt, in a moment of pain, in a moment of angst? And where is the thread between the two? Those are the intangibles; you want to make sure it doesn't feel like they're two different human beings. My job was coloring in the blanks, in a sense.
The best way to do that was, I feel, to join my humanity to his. I don't know what it's like to be a man of his conviction, but I know what it's like to be a father of four because I have four kids. I know what it is to be married. I know what it is to have friends. I know what it is to have fears and doubts. Those are universal truths for me that I felt I could bring to the audience, and hopefully that [would] make them connect to Dr. King.
You've both talked about not wanting to approach him as an icon. What's the other version of this movie that you're glad it isn't? I imagine sweeping strings every time he walks into the frame.
Ava DuVernay: The other version is what you're saying: It's lifeless. It's not three-dimensional. It's not a man; it's a statue, it's a holiday. It's not real. As filmmakers, as storytellers, we try to tell stories about people. So when you don't allow him to be a person, then you don't get a good story. I think that might be a reason why I have a distance to some historical dramas that I've seen in the past. You're basically watching a history lesson, which is nothing that either of us wanted do. Why make that?
And a lot of those history lessons, when dealing with race relations, end on a note as if, "And then everything was fine after that." Which "Selma" wisely doesn't do.
ADV: Right. Yeah, we weren't interested in tying it up with a neat bow at the end. It's one of the reasons why I really made sure that postscript, that final bit of "Where are they now" with the woman Viola Liuzzo, it says that she was murdered five hours after the beautiful speech that you're watching. It was important to say what happened to Dr. King and it was important to make the film be deeply rooted in a sense of what was real as opposed to this fabricated triumph. There were triumphs there; there was tragedy there. And it's ongoing right now. ... We need to appreciate audiences for being a lot more intelligent and attuned than studios think that they are.
I find myself surprised that there haven't been more assassination attempts in my lifetime. It's a good thing, of course, but it's not as if viewpoints have become less extreme and there are fewer guns. Do you find it surprising that it's something weirdly confined to this period?
ADV: That's interesting. I've never thought of that. What came to mind was just that the behavior around important people has changed radically. At that time there was no protection. Folks were advocating for whatever they were advocating for, and they were out in the open. So I think there are severe deterrents now. It is something that was such a national trauma during that time with all of these attempts and successful assassinations of huge figures. All I can say is you're right-the mindset hasn't changed, but the behavior [has] because of the deterrents.
DO: I think that the '60s in particular, 1968 in particular being such a crazy time for these deaths. In terms of Robert Kennedy and then Dr. King, but I think things really came to a head in the '60s. It was 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation. America was in a time of radical change, and I think a legacy of the civil rights movement is they amplified these injustices so much and there was a real galvanization for change at that point that these two factions, i.e. those who were progressive and those who were regressive butted heads, and I think the reason why there have been less assassinations is because beyond that there were just certain truths that lodged in the American psyche. Which is that African-Americans are here to stay; we are human beings; we deserve to be treated as such. And so beyond that point the seed was laid for President Obama. The seed was laid for Oprah Winfrey. The seed was laid for Ava DuVernay directing this film. We have massive strides still to make, but I think beyond that moment there was a deadlock broken which is signified by the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and other things like that coming into play as well.
Many have talked about the disturbing correlations between the film and what's going on now. Surely the last six months or a year aren't the only times when there have been controversial, terrible things happening with the police. Why are there so many incidents bubbling up now?
ADV: I think those are just things that have captured national attention at this moment. Trayvon, but before that was Oscar Grant, before that was ... on and on, every year there's one ...
And yet nothing changes.
ADV: And nothing changes. And that one case signifies the many cases we don't hear about. What my hope for us in this moment as a society is a real careful look at a very specific thing. Which when you look back at the civil rights movement, they were asking for something very specific. In this campaign they were asking for voting rights. In the campaign before that, they were asking for desegregation. In the campaign before that it was about economic justice and bus boycott. It was always something they were moving toward, not just a general outrage.
So what has to be asked for now?
ADV: It's police reform. It has to be. A true, national education-stop, look at the system of policing, a real moment of true reform of policing tactics and procedures. Jimmie Lee Jackson in our film. Decades before that. It's the way that people of color in this country do not feel protected and served by the people that have taken the oath to protect and serve us. Why there's never a benefit of the doubt to our movements as black bodies in this society.
So I think that if we can just start to wrap our minds around one thing and really move forward around that one thing, for me, all these cases, that's what they have in common. So the good thing about all this unrest is that there's a mess. There's not complacency here. Folks are agitated and they want their voices to be heard, and if we can just gather around these one or two ideas and move forward in that way, that's what we can learn from this movement and this movie: Take one thing and let's go after it.
DO: I think that that's a really, really good point Ava makes about police reform. When we first started this tour about two weeks ago we were talking about Ferguson. Now as of today Eric Garner has been bolted on. That's just so disheartening as a truism. I was signing a petition just three days ago for body cameras on police people. And then you see that footage. It's as plain as day. He employs a chokehold on this guy that is against the rules. Exactly what Ava said is the key: It has to be police reform. I don't want to have to say to my kids, "Be wary of the police" when that's who you want your kids calling if they have a bad situation happening to them. And right now there is such a fundamental breakdown of trust. And so that's the next frontier.
Watch Matt review the week's big new movies Fridays at 11:30 a.m. on NBC.
mpais@tribune.com
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