British star David Oyelowo feels it has taken a decade for Selma and his iconic portrayal of Dr Martin Luther King to find its audience and acknowledges Brad Pitt for telling him to be patient.
David Oyelowo is one of Britain’s leading actors, and his unforgettable portrayal of Martin Luther King in 2014’s Selma still serves as one of the career highs for a performer who has plenty of them. However, Oyelowo has spoken in the past about the film’s reception and what a strange time it was for him. Despite clearly inhabiting the role, the actor was overlooked at the Oscars and the film itself came under some fire for historical inaccuracy.
Recalls the actor, ‘“There was this controversy about whether the film was historically accurate. Plus, there was “the whole Oscar thing and #oscarsowhite, all this noise around the film, as opposed to what the film was.”
It must have all made for a pretty emotionally-charged period for Oyelowo, who’d won a dream role and then delivered an iconic performance, only to see it become caught up in a wildfire of conversations that went far beyond the film itself.
Brad Pitt’s Plan B production company was behind the film, and Oyelowo revealed this week at the NATPE Global conference in Miami (via Deadline) that Pitt gave him some advice regarding the film’s reception which turned out to be pretty useful.
“Don’t worry about any of that,” the actor recalled Pitt telling him. “You don’t know what your film is until ten years after it’s been made. And I remember him saying that and me thinking, ‘Yeah, you’re Brad Pitt. You can say that. I don’t know about that.’ But he used the example of one of my favourite films of all time, which is Fight Club.”
Although the films couldn’t be more different, like Fight Club, Selma has continued to attract increasing numbers of admirers as time has passed and now, Oyelowo says, is “one of the things I am most proud of.” Pitt “couldn’t be more right, in terms of what [Selma] has continued to be, and it’s almost 10 years on.”
Oyelowo added, “You were right, Brad, you were right.”
It’s a good reminder in this often clickbaity world of instant gratification that the narrative surrounding a film can take months or years to fully form. Ava DuVernay's take on Dr King found itself caught up in a range of controversies at the time of its release, but the passing of time has revealed it to be what it really is: an incredibly well-made film with an astonishing performance at its heart. We’re glad that Mr Oyelowo has come to see it that way.
