Ep65 - David Oyelowo / "Gringo"

I ask an awesome question. The round of applause is always encouraged. You're not gonna have that wrapper going ms, It's fine, it's all good, all right, get all my stuff find Uh. I do like a little backup just in case, you know, right, No, actually, I the Oscars take it all out of me every year. So taking a break. It's amazing you're doing this. Yeah, hey man, I wanted to talk to you really bad. Good good. This movie is hilarious. But we'll talk about in a minute. Anyway,

we were recording, so we're gonna dive right in. Okay, We're here with David or yellow Wall. He's the Star of Gringo, which I saw a couple of weeks ago. David gets to be funny. I can't hear that surprising. No, no, I'm gonna talk about that. But before I get to that, you know, we're recording this right after the Oscars. What do you think of the Oscars this year? I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed it. It's a silly thing to say, but I actually thought a lot of the species were

really good. I think that jet Ski really got people motivated, moving things along. I think they were scant surprises. Um, I was. I was surprised by best original song. I thought it was going to be this is Me and and to be honest, seeing Um under Day and Common seeing that song as well, it just felt like, Okay, if it wasn't the front run up before, it should be. Now it's a bit late. Like if everyone voted right

now and all the performances, they probably would voted for Common. Yeah, exactly, exactly, Um and so. But but you know, that was the only real kind of surprise. Everything else sort of went as certainly I thought it would. Yeah, Um, the the selma of it all, with the the Oscar so white that came out after that. We've talked about this before, but you know, I had avon the show last week. I was curious her thoughts in terms of how far we've come, how far we have to go, and and

all of that. What do you think. Well, I think it's amazing the difference three years makes, you know. I remember, you know, only only three years ago in protest of the Eric ghana Um situation. You know, we wore I can't breathe t shirts and we got really reprimanded by academy members, by other people who just you know, I mean the literal phrase, excuse my French, was why are

they stirring ship? And here we are three years on and you barely have a lapel big enough to to pin all the badges of quite rightful protest, you know, whether it's Darker or me too or the gun situation. So I'm just kind of taken aback by by the fact that society, culture, you know, certainly this industry can shift so much. And of course, as I as I mentioned the me too movement being a situation that I think will bring about change that is irrevocable um. But

you know, going back to the Salma of it all. Um. Also, I just think it's amazing and wonderful that we now have films like Black Panther and get Out where there's not even a whiff or a whisper of the need for some kind of white savior character, which I am absolutely sure is why Salma got attacked for its depiction of Lyndon Johnson. Um. And you know, because he did

not fulfill that all. Yeah, because you know, there's still culturally that there was a need, There felt a need that if you're going to tell a heroic story about America, it needs to have some kind of why presence that further to the advance of just people generally. I mean, the the accusation that was leveled against the film was a completely erroneous and false statement that Selma was Lyndon Johnson's idea, and that was planted by a rival studio

who were threatened by the film. We now know that for a fact, And ask me which studio was, I'm not going to tell you quick. But but the fact that that narrative even took is I think what is so egregious in a sense. But you know, I know for a fact get Out would not have been nominated for four oscars pre Oscar so White. So again that is something that I think points that progress. Yeah. Absolutely. Now with Gringo, you get to cut loose. As I said, you get to be funny. I was just gonna say,

I was reading all these headlines. It's like David Oyolo, will you know, finally gets to you know, be funnier or whatever. And I'm just like, I find that people have that said about them, like people think that they're so serious or something. Often are just kind of funny people if you know them, like, you know, not to drop a name, but Christian Bale is that way, Like he's everyone thinks he's so serious, but he's such a cut up in a kind of scenes. Are you that

way in general? Are you just like a funny guy in general? Do you? I think it's strange to see these people acting like, oh you funny? Wow. Well, to be honest, it's it's it's nice too, at this stage of my career to bring something that for other people feels fresh, you know, to my friends, to my wife, my kids, you know, they know the goofy side of me, and that was certainly something I wanted to show more of. It's just the way it happened in my career that

I've just done more dramatic stuff. I have actually done more comedy on stage, and so of course less people see it. But I also wanted it to be the right circumstances. You know, not all films or scripts I should say that say they're a comedy are, in my opinion, funny. You know, I prefer comedy that is situational rather than self consciously comedic, and scripts like Gringo don't come along every day. Yeah, you can also use that to your advantage.

I would assume, you know, if people think that you're some stoic presence all the time or something. All right, I'm laying it on thick. I mean I don't obviously, but you know, if people think that of you, then the surprise has to be kind of fun to play with. Absolutely absolutely, But you know, but the actors I most admire are actors who, at different points have shown us completely different sides of themselves. I mean, Ryan Gosling is one of my favorite actors. And we've seen him give

comedic roles in intensely dramatic roles. We've seen him do action, we've seen him do sci Fi. You've seen him do romantic comedy, you know. That to me is what an actor is, someone who can really just ring the changes as far as any kind of depiction of humanity. Um. I love seeing Robert de Niro when he does his comedic roles, having watched you know, his earlier work especially and just how intense and dramatic those films were, you know,

it kind of gives a new lease of life. I think the same thing about Jack Nicholson, you know, And so to be able to find the space for me to do that is something I really aspired to. What are some comedians you like, comedies you like of curiosity? Well, you know what, they were actually huge inspirations in doing this film. Midnight Run is a is a favorite of mine because again it's situational. You know, those guys are not overtly playing for laughs, and it actually has some

poignancy to it. There is there is some some real slapstick to it, and then there's just it's just playing funny and it stands the test of time. I think films that are less self consciously comedic do that. I think I would say Fargo is one of those sideways. I can see every day of the week. The Big Lebowski is a big favorite of mine, you know. So, so films like that that not necessarily reliant on what you would call comedic actors. Um, you know that that's

my favorite kind of film comedy. How about Nash's Nash Edgerton's kind of breed of comedy. He's got such a biting sense of humor. If everybody home, if you haven't seen his short films Spider and Bear, they're hilarious. Uh. And then with this film, you know, it's a very specific sense of humor. So was it something that you found, I don't know. Not appealing is not the word, but it was a sense of humor that was kind of

in line with yours. Or appealing is actually the right word in relation to this, because I saw his short films and I also saw his feature film The Square, and a common theme in all his work is hubris. You know this this thing of I guess comma um is another way of putting it that if you do good, good things will hopefully happen. If you do bad, it's going to bounce back and bite you in the butt. And you really see that in all of those films and that's actually, you know, something I believe to be

true in life. And you know, he really plays on that and he pushes it to the extremes. And because he was and is a stunt man, there does tend to be a real physical element, a shocking physical element to it. You you watch all of his films, I've had moments where I've gone, oh like that, you know, when when something has happened. And we just had the premiere last night, and you heard that sound a few times in our film, and that is something that I

love watching and of course love to be a part of. Yeah, regarding his stunt work, that first short film he did Lucky where he's in the back of the trunk of a speed Yeah, they checked that one out to everyone. It's shorter and it's brilliant. It's great um and also the cast. You've got a great cast on this movie. Joel Ledgerton, Nash's brother, Charlie's there, and I love Charotto Copley,

He's like one of the funniest guys. Danny Newton, Amanda cipherd So talk about that ensemble working with these people, Well, I think you know, when you when you look at that cast and it goes back to what I was saying about those films and the kind of actors who were in those films and the tone of those films. You know, we are all actors, probably known more for our dramatic work, but we were all drawn to this because there is something funny about it. But you can

also bring a three dimensional character. You're not playing just archetypes or caricatures. In a sense, there's there's enough space for specificity and there and I think that that's what all of us, we are part of the film, have

had the opportunity to show elsewhere. And it was so much fun because almost all of us were doing things that we're not known for and therefore just had a lot of fun with because you know, as actors, you're you're constantly looking for where you're going to be given latitude to stretch yourself, to show the audience a different side and to do things you haven't done before. So that I think that sense of fun we were all

having really comes through in the movie. Yeah, oh, press scraining, I've been to where they served me Margarita's before him. That kicks off a new trend. Yes, anyone who sees the film was we'll know how appropriate that is. And the little reserved you know, because I guess I'm so important. The little reserved tag for our seats was the panther right a right right. Yeah, they were they were working

it working well, uh, speaking earlier of it. But like I said, I have a had av on the show last week for Wrinkle in Time, and I was just doing some quick research before and I pulled up your IMDb it said you played the it in Wrinkle in Time. Yes, yes, I don't remember a voice or what was going on there. Tell me, yeah, it's it's it's purely my voice. You don't you don't see me in that. But that's also

a byproduct of my pact with Ava. We've promised each other that there's not going to be a single thing she ever directs that I'm not part of. In some way, I couldn't. I couldn't be a part of Wrinkling Time because I was doing a fellow in New York at the time that they were shooting. So we managed to figure it out. That's fun. I had no idea. I was like, really, I was trying to remember when it said something like it's it's in there. Yeah, and then my voice has been treated, you know. But yes, I

played the eat it in that. That's awesome. I wanted to talk about clover Field Paradox actually, which was a very unique situation this year. I mean, which you knew it obviously as God particle. What did you think about the whole episode where suddenly Netflix has it and it's releasing after the Super Bowl? Like out of the blue? Yeah? Was it out of the blue? Like, did you guys know what was gonna happen? It was completely out of the blue. We knew that. Well, first of all, go

back a bit. The release date was going to be April theatrical release, and but we knew there was supposed to be a conference call with j J with all the actors on the day of the Super Bowl. I was actually in Minnesota to watch the Super Bowl. I was there with a friend who's a huge Eagles fan, and so we were there and so at eleven o'clock I think it's Central time, I was on the phone with all the other actors, including the director, And it was on that call that I found out three things.

The title of the film, um, the fact that they were going to be two trailers on the Super Bowl and the fact that it was going to be dropping on Netflix that night, which on the one hand just was completely surreal, but on the other hand was kind of genius, because the truth of the matter is, in this industry right now, everyone is trying to figure out how do you get people to actually watch your movie.

There's just so much great stuff out there in terms of television, in terms of film, just in terms of Instagram. I mean, you know, I see young people literally just getting all their entertainment from that. And so I truly believe that far more people saw that film in the way that it was dropped then maybe maybe otherwise would certainly in in a theater. And so even though it was kind of surreal and surprising, I thought it was

also quite genius. It is I mean, if everyone watches in my business is watching a Super Bowl to see these movie trailer ads, and it's like, oh, I can't wait to see that in six months, right if you know, either I was ready for the game to be over right, right exactly. And I know there's no film I have ever done in my entire career whereby virtually everyone I know had seen a film I did that was released within twenty four to forty eight hours of it being

available to see. I mean literally everyone I knew had seen it because they were all watching the super Bowl and then they either just watched it directly after or watched it the next day. And look, you know, I I make movies in the hope that they're going to be seen. And the boy was that the case with that film? Was it actually a clover Field movie when you made it or something kind of? It was God particle and then none of this that's you know at

the end, and that as far as you knew, that wasn't. No, No, it wasn't. It wasn't a part of it. It was as we were shooting the film that that started being introduced. Um. And you know, stealth and secrecy, as you can tell from this conversation, is just a big part of j J's modus operandi. And love that stuff. Yeah, the mystery Box is this thing. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, and even

with his collaborators. So so yeah, we we didn't know until quiet late and then that Monday we had a we've got a billboard across the street of Variety here and very next morning clover Field Paradox right there it was. It was like, it's crazy, yeah, and it's just it's just industry wise, it's interesting that, yeah, that's a movie Paramount didn't quite know what to do with. And so we're at this place now where it's kind of a

double edged short. It's like, Okay, if a studio the doesn't like what they're working with, they can't figure out what to do with what they're working with, you just unloaded the Netflix. I mean, it's that worked in this instance because everyone saw it and it was a big kind of promotional event. But it kind of raises interesting questions about the future I guess, of of the business.

But I think the bigger issue is the fact that because the business is so influx, what you're what you have is probably more regime change than hitherto has been the case. And I think part of what happened there was regime change. You have a new um set of leaders, headship, whatever you want to call it, and there are films that are probably films that they wouldn't have green lit or they don't feel ownership of, or they, like you say, don't know what to do with because they weren't there

from the beginning. And so there becomes a kind of I don't know, washing your hands of things. And that's not just you know, it's times of clever Field paradox. And I don't even think it was a case of washing one's hands. I just think that there is a very real um syndrome when it comes to regime change.

I know, for me as a producer, one of the things you dread the most is that the person who green lit your project will be gone by the time you are either ready to go into post or marketing or the release, because you know, it's it's like suddenly one of the parents of a child is gone, and then you suddenly have someone else who's who's supposed to care for this child as much as the person who was there for its conception. Um. So that I think is is the more anxiety inducing fact of our of

our business right now. A lot of people, you know, it's it's musical chairs out there right now. You said you're about to start the slim as Mini and then and then you just wrapped up that's dug. I'm a movie chaos Walking that I just wanted to bring up because the synopsis is a trip. I'm going to read it a dystopian world where there are no women and all living creatures can hear each other's thoughts in a stream of images, words, and sounds called noise. So that

sounds fun. Well, you know, the thing I was so taken with, and the main reason I did the film is that Conceit is a fascinating one because the reason there are no women is because men can't hear or see the thoughts of women, but women can see the thoughts and hear the thoughts of men, and so they basically decide that is an untenable situation, um and so get rid of all the women. And of course the chaos ensues when a woman enters the fray in the

shape of Daisy Ridley, and hence chaos walking. I mean, it's it's kind of an incredible thing to imagine, you know, especially as and this is a generalization, but you know, we all like to think that women where their emotions more openly than men do. But if you reverse that, not only are men wearing their emotions more openly, but

you can hear them, you can see them. I mean, you know, that just flies in the face of everything that we know to be true of how we interact with each other, and so you know, in the hands of Doug Lenman as well visually and just cinematically, it's a really really kinetic piece. Talk about working with Dog, I mean, he's obviously great action director, great drama director around. It's one of my favorite movie swingers. What's what's it like working with Dog? He just doesn't know how to

make a bad movie. I mean, that's that's the thing with Doug. I've enjoyed all of his films, and you know, even when I talked to him before we did the film, I could just tell I was talking to someone who was incredibly cerebral. It was a bit surprising talking to him that he was an action director, because he approaches everything in a very sort of intellectual, emotional and character way, and then somehow the action comes from that. And even when you meet him or talk to him or you're

around him. It's so weird that he did the born identity or Mr and Mrs Smith, and I sort of love that contradiction within him in a sense. And also the character that I get to play, Aaron, who is

a very weird dude. I mean, he's this guy who I described as a religious zealot who is a byproduct of this community and absolutely believes in what he's saying and doing, but he's so out there in a sense, and so I was just fascinated by the idea of playing that character under his gaze with this Conceit give me an idea of, like, where you feel like you're at in your career, what you want to do going forward?

Because it's interesting you do this comedy, you're working with dog on a movie like that, So like, do you have an ongoing mission statement, what you want to do going forward from here? What's interesting to you right now? Yeah? My mission statement has always been the same and it will be the same going forward, which is that everything I do, I wanted to bring complexity to what it is to be black on planet Earth. You know I am.

If I wasn't who I am, and maybe I would just go from you know, project a project, just whatever interests me or whatever. But you know, I grew up not seeing images that were reflective of my life or

the complexity of my life. Certainly black people, Africans, African Americans, black Brits, you know, all people I identify with having lived in those communities and in those countries through the course of my life, and um, I want to create images for my twelve year old self, images that I think would have broadened my horizons, because I do think that this is such a powerful medium both for empathy but also for the truth of what it is to

be a human being. And we've seen so much complexity and variation and beauty as it pertains to what it is to be white in the world. And UM, you know, I'm the center of my own universe, and I know that I'm just as interesting and varied as the images I've seen growing up in this medium that I so adore, and so you know that's one of my motivations as as an actor. But you know, now as I gain more of a platform, UM, an extension of that is to facilitate people who aren't like me, or who aren't me,

also having their stories told. So, you know, working with female directors, directors of color, um, people who are marginalized or who are deemed minorities in any way, or just people whose stories I haven't seen told or heard. You know, that's something I feel very very passionate about. So you know, almost everything I do has something to do with that in some way. Before I let you go. I also wanted to ask you just I know you're passionate about it.

Your scholarship for Nigerian girls. How's that going. It's going really really well. Were we are at five girls now? And that's something that is a deep passion in my life because of this reality that I became aware of and it seems silly recently, which is that the way

to solve world poverty is to educate girls. Quite simple, you know, we we all think it's sending food packs and this, that and the other, but actually there are communities, countries, societies where if you just allowed women the same level of education, respect, opportunity platform, it would create in those communities, um, a world in which they will be able to facilitate their own forward momentum. They wouldn't need charity, they wouldn't need all these things that we in the West field

we need to give them. And so um. You know, terrorist activity in Nigeria has been really targeted girls, as we know with the Chibok girls and and it's been

around the issue of education. So that's something I'm really putting putting my muscle behind and I'm about to be um a girl rising Ambassador and that's an amazing um organization that basically makes content, both literature and film to educate communities about how they can empower the girls who are marginalized within their countries, and those facilities go out and and basically are changing those communities mindset and so um, yeah, that's that's another new thing that I'm becoming a part

of because you know, I have a lovely daughter and every time I look at her, the idea that anyone would curtail her opportunity and her future is anathema to me. So it's kind of for her. Really. Well that's great man, Good luck with that. Thank you. Um, movies called Green Go, Just shift gears, movies called Green Goo. It's in theaters now. Have a couple of margaritas before you go. It's hilarious. David, hilarious, David or Yellowell, thank you for coming on the show

men really appreciate it. With the pleasure