I grew up watching period dramas, as we all did in the 1980s and ’90s – endless adaptations of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens – and I loved them. But I never saw anyone like me in them, so I decided to find a story to erode the excuses for me not doing one. – David Oyelowo
I think until Britain acknowledges just how much of a presence black people had here before the Sixties, then there are certain stories that are not going to be inclusive of what I have to offer. – David Oyelowo
It’s because films like ‘Selma’ are so rarely made that we end up putting them under the microscope. One, maybe two, a year. As a white person, you don’t have that. You have the gamut. No one says to Oliver Stone, ‘Another film about Vietnam? White characters again?’ – David Oyelowo
There are many, many communities, many ethnic minorities, many civilizations that have been brutalised by others and you have to move on. You cannot perpetually stay in that place of blame, otherwise it’s just a downward spiral. – David Oyelowo
I admire many actors, though I don’t think there’s anyone whose career I would want to mirror sort of by the beats. What I’m really looking to do is constantly defy expectations. I’m very curious to see if you can actually have a character actor and a movie star’s career combined. – David Oyelowo
I find that male directors are more interested in what the film looks like as opposed to what the film is about emotionally. My job is not to make the film look pretty, and I don’t feel drawn to making myself look pretty within the film. – David Oyelowo
I think that any channel, whether it’s Fox, CNN, or whatever, if they were truly giving a 360-view of what’s going on, we would be better equipped to not slap judgments on people we really don’t understand. – David Oyelowo
I seem to be able to disassociate my insecurities. I know a lot of actors – some of the best actors in the world – can’t bear to watch themselves and I have to say I can’t relate to that. – David Oyelowo
I believe the path to a long career is to keep the audience guessing. Daniel Day Lewis is my absolute hero from that point of view. I literally will pay to see anything he does because I know it’s going to be something different than I have already seen. – David Oyelowo
As artists, our primary function is not to be educators – but we are at a time in history, where for us, our history needs to give context for stories that we hope to tell down the road. – David Oyelowo
Asher means ‘happy and blessed’ which embodies my eldest. Caleb means ‘stubborn and tenacious dog’ and I can’t even tell you how much that is my little boy! It was a useful warning. – David Oyelowo
What I try to do with my career as an actor is what I’ve learned in the theater: I am rigorous with myself as to whether I’m telling the truth, and I try to surround myself with filmmakers and content creators who are also interested in the pursuit of the truth. – David Oyelowo
Getting to do what I think was my fifth BBC drama with Nikki Amuka-Bird – we’ve done ‘Shoot The Messenger,’ ‘Five Days,’ ‘The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency,’ ‘Born Equal’ and now ‘Small Island’ – was another highlight for me. And filming in Jamaica was great, too. – David Oyelowo
If you feel like the beginning of your history is rooted in slavery, that really, I think, messes with your sense of self, your self-esteem, and your self-worth. – David Oyelowo
We’re all, whether we like it or not, gonna have to deal with bereavement at some point in our lives, and it’s something I think, as a society, maybe we shy away from. – David Oyelowo
If you’re going to play human beings, and you’re going to play them three-dimensionally, you have to show every side of them. – David Oyelowo
Hollywood has done some of these films, and some of them are ginormous biblical movies, but you can tell the people making these are not invested in the truth of what those stories are biblically. It shows in the work. – David Oyelowo
I love that as a black person I’ve experienced not being a minority. I think that’s helped me to combat the minority mentality people can have here, which can stop them scaling the heights. – David Oyelowo
The fact that I was black and desirous to do my work, the other kids would call me a coconut, as if I were somehow attempting to be white. The bullying was real: I’d get punched, spat at, terrible things. – David Oyelowo
What we usually do to great men and women is relegate them to homogenised heroism. Their words and actions become soundbites and images in a way that gives us an excuse not to act bravely in our own lives. – David Oyelowo
The only way we are going to get diversity is if the demographics of the decision-makers change… The odd-token bone thrown is not going to do it. Don’t pat yourself on the back because you made that black drama; that’s not diversity. It’s got to be baked into the foundation of where the ideas flow from. – David Oyelowo
If you look at your companies, and half of your staff are not female, and a decent percentage of them are not people of color, then you are part of the problem because you need people working for you and you need people in positions of leadership who can exercise their bias and who can exercise their perspective. – David Oyelowo
I had always known that I couldn’t play Dr. King purely out of my own ability as an actor. When you look at him give those speeches, you can tell that he is taken up by something other than himself. He is flowing with an anointing that is directly from God. – David Oyelowo
I truly believe in cinema’s potential for cultural impact. I have a clear idea what I want to do – to enrich people’s lives. – David Oyelowo
I’m one of a generation brought up on television whose acting is more ‘naturalistic’, whereas with some of the older generation it’s more heightened. But I think there’s room for both styles. – David Oyelowo
Generally speaking, we as black people have been celebrated more for when we are subservient when we are not being leaders or kings or in the center of our own narrative driving it forward. – David Oyelowo