How David and Jessica Oyelowo Turned Hollywood Frustration Into a Disney Production Deal

It’s a studio ritual almost as old as Hollywood: announce a production deal right before the release of a filmmaker’s new movie. For David and Jessica Oyelowo’s Yoruba/Saxon, the twinning of “The Water Man” (David’s directorial debut, which opened theatrically last week) and a two-year first-look Disney deal is more than industry rite. After seven years and six films, it means that the industry has started to catch up to them.

Like many actors, the Oyelowos created a company to improve their own opportunities. In their case, the struggles they faced mirrored a much larger one. “One of the main reasons we wanted to start the company was to have a voice and to provide a place for voices that weren’t being heard,” Jessica said in a recent interview with IndieWire. “For Hollywood to finance certain projects, they required a certain perspective on someone else’s story. We were looking at this as actors thinking, ‘How can we be the voice? How can we be the protagonist in our own stories when there’s always somebody else’s point of view to tell our stories?’ And particularly for Black voices. It’s been a massive problem for such a long time.”

Continue reading at Indiewire.

Review: David Oyelowo is Breathtakingly Brilliant in HBO’s 'Nightingale'

It takes a great deal of courage to embark on a solo performance; a one-man cast with a singular location. It’s such a vulnerable experience for the actor, giving himself over the character and that character’s experiences entirely.  Often it doesn’t work; the audience is unable to remain enamored with the story. However, when it does work, when the actor becomes infused in the character and with the story, the results are breathtaking.  In HBO’s "Nightingale," David Oyelowo gives the best performance of his career as Peter Snowden, a man quickly and violently descending into madness.

Director Elliott Lester requires his audience to do the work of piecing Peter’s story together for themselves. Through Peter’s manic though at times humorous monologues, we began to get a fuller picture of his life, and the circumstances that have led him to this particular moment in time.  Set in modern-day Minneapolis, Peter is desperately trying to step into the 21st century though his surroundings have stalled him. He lives with his elderly mother and everything from the drapery on the windows, to the clothing in the closets are relics from the 1960’s.  In one of the most striking scenes of the film, Peter enters the house and begins un-boxing a new iPhone.  He kneels before it, worshiping its sleek design as if praying at the feet of God himself.  It’s obvious that he’s been waiting a long time for this moment, the new device is so unlike the house phone that the audience had grown accustom to seeing him with. Though Peter is in many ways stuck in a past time, his story is one for this century.  He documents his days through a series of vlogs, which he posts on the Internet. When he’s not on the phone, he speaks to his viewers, his mother, to God or to himself.

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.

Image: HBO