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" I consider myself a human being, a Christian, a father, a husband, so many things, before being a black person. "
David Oyelowo
Father
Husband
Person
Related Quotes:
" 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
Look
Myself
Looks
" We can't afford to deny our past in a bid to be empowered. But what we can do is contextualize the past. "
David Oyelowo
Afford
Past
Our
" 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
Looking
You
Character
" I hear God as an audible voice. "
David Oyelowo
Hear
Voice
God
" 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
Film
End
Person
" People always ask me, 'Why so many historical dramas?' Because those are the best roles I get to play, and I get to play heroes in those roles. "
David Oyelowo
Me
People
Heroes
" I know I had my equivalents in Adrian Lester and Lenny James when I was at drama school. I remember David Harewood doing 'Othello' at the National, and Adrian Lester having done Cheek by Jowl's famous 'As You Like It and Company' at the Donmar. Not necessarily performances I saw, but just the fact they happened was massively encouraging. "
David Oyelowo
Famous
Know
Remember
" One of the things I have an allergic reaction to playing, especially as a black actor, is the mandatory kind of best friend/cop/detective type. You will never see me in that movie. "
David Oyelowo
Best
Kind
You
" 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
Movies
People
Truth
" 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
Me
Heights
Black
" If my history, my indisputable British history, has never been visited, where does that put me? If we are only going to look at things that need a revisit, you are wiping me out of this country's history. That is unacceptable to me. "
David Oyelowo
Me
History
Look
" I've been an actor for 14 years now and a lot of that time was spent in theatre and television. Then I moved to L.A. to try and build upon that and it's starting to pay off! "
David Oyelowo
Time
Build
Television
" 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
You
Blame
Move On
" I turn down a lot of movies because sometimes they glamorize violence or the darker side of sex or criminality. "
David Oyelowo
Sometimes
Violence
Down
" 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
Bear
Best
Know
" Every time I go to Africa, I feel like I hit true north. There is a depth of feeling that I have for the continent, in the richness of the people, the suffering , but also the transcendent joy that is there - it's like nowhere else on the planet. "
David Oyelowo
Time
People
Joy
" 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
Play
Human
Show
" My parents are very hard working people who did everything they could for their children. I have two brothers and they worked dog hard to give us an education and provide us with the most comfortable life possible. My dad provided for his family daily. So, yes, that is definitely in my DNA. "
David Oyelowo
Dog
Children
Education
" 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
Excuses
Story
Me
" I love tennis, love it! "
David Oyelowo
Love
Tennis
I Love
" I will, till the day I die, be an advocate for the d-word: diversity. "
David Oyelowo
Day
Die
Diversity
" I talk to God every day. He's very real for me. "
David Oyelowo
Me
Talk
Day
" People in the industry thought it was laughable that I should be going up for things that didn't clearly state what race the part was intended for. "
David Oyelowo
Race
Going
Things
" In my time since moving to the United States, I've found that there is a dearth of great writing for black people. There are stories that depict us in a way that isn't cliched or niche, and that a white person, a Chinese person, an Indian person can watch and relate to. Those are the stories I want to be a part of telling. "
David Oyelowo
Writing
Great
Moving
" The kinds of stories I want to be a part of telling are about delving into what it is to be a human being. "
David Oyelowo
Want
Stories
Kinds
" 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
You
Change
Diversity
" 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
Happy
Stubborn
You
" I think it's vital to have something outside your acting to keep you rooted in the real world, and help you fill the vacuum. If you have nothing else, it can be unhealthy. For me being a Christian has been invaluable: it simply means acting isn't the centre of my life. "
David Oyelowo
World
Help
Life
" I have a bee in my bonnet as to how few black historical figures one sees on film; incredible stories, stories from which we are living the legacy and which just don't get made. "
David Oyelowo
Just
Legacy
Black
" One of the skills you have to master in theater is the ability to make the audience believe that things that aren't there are there - just like when you're acting against CGI. Also, in a theater, the people in the back row can't see the whites of your eyes. Or your lips moving as you deliver dialogue. "
David Oyelowo
You
Eyes
Lips