Error message

  • Deprecated function: Methods with the same name as their class will not be constructors in a future version of PHP; views_display has a deprecated constructor in require_once() (line 3174 of /home/lgbtinfr/public_html/africarise3/includes/bootstrap.inc).
  • Deprecated function: Methods with the same name as their class will not be constructors in a future version of PHP; views_many_to_one_helper has a deprecated constructor in require_once() (line 113 of /home/lgbtinfr/public_html/africarise3/sites/all/modules/ctools/ctools.module).

David Oyelowo on Acting, His Royal Roots and the One Role He Won't Take

If actor David Oyelowo projects a regal air, it's one he comes by naturally. Born in England to Nigerian parents, Oyelowo's father had always told him that theirs was a royal family, a claim the actor initially discounted. "I was like, 'Yeah, whatever,' " Oyelowo tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. But then the family moved back to Nigeria, where they lived on a street named after his family, and the actor realized that his father had not been joking. Oyelowo says that his family's royal heritage did not come with financial or "positional" benefits, but it did convey a "sense of self that has enabled me, as I've gone into my life in the West, to carry myself in a way that flies in the face of the world in which I live."

At the age of 24, Oyelowo brought his regal bearing to the stage, where he became the first black actor to portray a king in a Royal Shakespeare Company production. More recently, he has made a name for himself by taking on American film roles. He played Martin Luther King Jr. in the film Selma, a civil rights activist in The Butler and a member of the Tuskeegee Airmen in Red Tails. His most recent film, HBO's Nightingale, is a single-character drama in which Oyelowo portrays an American veteran who is having a mental breakdown.

Continue reading...
Credited Source: 
NPR
Post date: 
2 June 2015
Facebook logo
Twitter logo

  • A Hopeful Continent

    African lives have already greatly improved over the past decade. The next...

  • Being Black and Gay

    "It's 2015 and we live in a world that tolerates us but is a long way from...

  • Kings of Kings Road

    Ty Ogunkaya, Body Alves and Liam Gardner photographed by Olgaç Bozalp and...

  • ArtBeat Africa

    Artbeat Africa brings together some of the best cultural reports and...

  • Jody Jock

    A quiet man, born and raised amongst the dessert heat and twilight glitter...

  • Sex Without Fear

    The new pill that could revolutionize gay life is reawakening old arguments...

More Testimonials