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David Oyelowo on Creating an Inclusive Kingdom and Sticking With ‘Bass Reeves’ After Being Turned Down by Every Studio
David Oyelowo reflects on the hard journeys to make 'Selma' & 'Bass Reeves' and discusses his mission to create a more inclusive industry.
This year, Oyelowo portrayed three different family men: a rideshare driver in the throes of profound grief in the Oscar-nominated short “The After”; a man caught comedically unaware of his wife’s job as an assassin in “Role Play”; and yet another king of yesteryear, the legendary deputy U.S. marshal Bass Reeves in Paramount+’s “ Lawmen: Bass Reeves.” It’s been a busy season, as he’s in the middle of filming his next show, the absurdist comedy “Government Cheese,” and writing a feature film script — both for Apple, where Yoruba Saxon has a first-look deal — all before he returns to his roots on the London stage to tackle the lead role in Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus” this summer. When I joke about the correlation between “Bass Reeves” and Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter,” the Grammy winner’s magnum opus that explores country music’s underrepresented Black roots, Oyelowo lets out a booming laugh. This includes Lonnie Chavis and Demi Singleton, both of whom star in “Bass Reeves,” as well as Storm Reid, who he cast in 2019’s “Don’t Let Go,” and his own son, Caleb Oyelowo, who recently enrolled in his dad’s old drama school.
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