“When people rely on surface appearances and false racial stereotypes, rather than in-depth knowledge of others at the level of the heart, mind and spirit, their ability to assess and understand people accurately is compromised*.” Reverend Dr James A. Forbes, US speaker, preacher and teacher.
David Oyelowo says: “We’re talking about diversity again and that’s because there isn’t enough of it. Excellence is the best weapon against prejudice. I intend to be part of the solution and not the problem. You’ve just got to keep giving good performances.”
be the first black actor to play an English king, there were a lot of negative comments. When people saw how good he was though, those comments stopped. Critics said Oyelowo had an “electrifying talent”. This was one of the first examples of “colour-blind casting”, or choosing an actor for a role without taking into consideration the colour of their skin.
Selma
David Oyelowo’s acting career was going well (he was in the first three series of spy thriller, Spooks, about the UK’s secret service department, MI5), and then he began to get parts in some big movies: Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Help, Lincoln, The Butler and Interstellar. David Oyelowo and his family moved to LA in 2007, and two months later he was shown the script for a biopic about civil rights campaigner, Martin Luther King Jr. During the seven years it took for filming to
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The first person of colour to win an Oscar® played Mammy in the epic film Gone With the Wind in 1939! She was the first woman of colour to sing on American radio and appeared in over 300 films. A
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The Colour of a Human Being
Oscar® Quiz
Are you a film buff*? This quiz is about people of colour who’ve been awarded Oscars®. Do you know who they are? Lupita Nyong’o • Forrest Whittaker • Octavia Spencer Sidney Poitier • Steve McQueen 1 This iconic African American actor won Best Actor for Lilies of the Field in 1963. 2 This person won Best Actress in a Supporting Role as Minnie Jackson in The Help, 2011. 3 This person was the first black African to win in any category, as Patsey in 12 Years a Slave. 4 This person was Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland, 2006. 5 This director was the first person of colour to win Best Picture for 12 Years a Slave in 2013.
start, the actor read everything he could about King. “I learned a lot about him during those years of waiting,” Oyelowo explains, “I hadn’t realised how much physical and mental stress he suffered in the fight for racial equality. I wanted to try and include that in the film. I wanted to try to feel what he felt.”
Although Oyelowo has been in a number of films about race and the civil rights movement, he believes these are films that everyone in the world can relate to. “These stories are powerful first because they are about people. Underneath that outer coating we are all just human beings,” he says.
Glossary casting: choosing a person to play a character in a film, TV show… compromised: when something is not as good as it could be dared: had the courage to defying: (here) challenging, changing ethnic diversity: people from different cultures, religions or groups expectations: what people think you think will do or will happen film buff: person who is very knowedgeable about cinema
The answers are on page 15.
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