David Oyelowo- Congratulations on film and congratulations on the career at the moment.
Especially the last 12 months, it's gone ever so slightly stratospheric since the success
of Selma. Have you acclimatised to the madness of global adoration? The success you've had,
over the last year. 'Oh dear- um, no, is the truth of the matter.The
funny thing for me is you know, I've been an actor for a while, you know, about seventeen/
eighteen years so you know, people kind of think you've come out of nowhere, so to speak,
but I've had a really nice career where I've made a living out of it and then to suddenly
have this um- moment where later on in your career where people recognise you and opportunities
are that definitely coming along that weren't there before. It's taking a bit of adjusting
to, but it's good stuff.' Perhaps when, when you get this kind of success,
it's attached to some more crazy 'fandom' that goes on, you've not had any incidents
where someone been trying to sell you their babies. You've escaped social media I've seen,
on Twitter there's a David Oyelowo who mostly posts pictures of you in various shirts.
'Right, really?' Do you try and keep away from that kind of
craziness? 'Yeah I mean, I stay away from social media
partly because the only thing I sort of seem actors ever use it for is to apologise for
silly things they've said, so I've just tried to avoid that. No the weirdest thing is the
epidemic of the selfie. You know- you can't go anywhere, without it and you the minute you take
one, you got to take fifteen. Um- so that's a bit of an adjustment as well.'
So we're here to talk about Captive. A very very tense suspenseful quite intimate thriller,
could you sum up what the premiss for the film is for the people who haven't seen it
yet? 'Yeah, um in 2005, in Atlanta, a guy called
Brian Nichols, who I'm play in the film is was trial for rape. He managed to break out
of the courthouse jail, and killed the judge, he gunned him down- the judge he was about
to face for trial. He also killed a court reporter, a Sheriff's deputy and a customs
officer, all in a morning. Before then escaping and taking a meth addict by the name of Ashley
Smith hostage for seven hours. She had been given this book called The Purpose Driven
Life, which out of desperation she read to him, something about those words and these
two broken people hold up together in an apartment for seven hours. Lead to a situation whereby
he ended up letting her go, giving himself up and she never touched that drug again beyond
that night.' It's a true story of course and you're playing
another real life character as you were with Dr. Martin Luther King. What attracted you
to this particular role? Is there something about real life characters that you like to
get your teeth into? 'Um- it's less about wanting to play real-
life characters and more about the fact that those films, I think, life truly is weirder
than fiction, what I just summarised for you there, if you just wrote that as a piece of
fiction, then your likely to think well that wouldn't happen- but because it did happen
you are given the license to really delve into the complexity of us as human beings.
And I think that if your not going to do a great big, sort of, superhero movie where
everything is blowing up and it's kind of a spectacle, the other side of that is to
really look at the complexity of us as human beings and I think that that is more fascinating
than you know, blowing stuff up. So um- I think that's why I'm drawn to these kind of
stories.' There's been a lot of craziness about the
Bond rumours for a little while, who's going to play the next Bond? But now definitively
we can at least say the new James Bond at the moment, is yourself, is David Oyelowo.
'Um- in an audio book.' It still counts!
'We mustn't forget that bit. Um- yeah I'm just flabbergasted by just the shear amount
of attention that this thing is getting. But I think it's great that, you know, the audience,
I think, is showing and suggesting and making vocal the fact that they are open to seeing
different kinds of people playing the central characters in movies. Not just Bond- you know-
I think it's just that there is an openness generally.'
You'd take it if they offered it to you though? 'Um not necessarily- not necessarily, it depends
on if I get to do other movies as well, I don't want to be purely identified with one
character.' I want to very, very quickly play a quick
game with you. It's the worst game I've ever made, it's called King or King. You acted
in Henry VI, a real king and then last year exploded into the world of playing Dr. Martin
Luther King himself.So I'm going to give you a list of names, I've got ten names, these
people are either real Kings, or prominent people with the surname King. That's how stupid
this game is. So- Don? 'King'
Philip Leopold Louis Maria? 'King Philip Leopold..'- of Belgium, nicely done!
Harold the fifth? 'King Harold the fifth' Of course. Lawrence Harvey Zeiger. 'King last
name.' Nicely done, it's Larry King.
Steven Edwin? 'King as a last name.' Very nice, Steven King the author. Mohammed
the sixth? 'I'm going to say King as a title'-of Morocco.
He loves it over there. William Alexander Claus George Ferdinand? He's got a long name.
'King as a title'- of the Netherlands. Billie Jean? 'King as a last name.'- tennis
player. Carl Gustaf? 'King as a title'- of Sweden.
And Benjamin Earl? 'King as a last name.' Very nice- Benny King. Very well done. David
Oyelowo you've scored 100% in my King or King game!
'I know a little bit about Kings.' Lovely to meet you mate. 'Thank you very much.'