David Oyelowo has been on a "cinematic journey" that led him to the role of Martin Luther King in ‘Selma’.
The 38-year-old actor first read the script for the film about the civil rights movement in 2007 and insists that its overarching message still resonates.
He said: "It’s been an incredible journey. Having read the script and had this deep spiritual knowledge that I would be playing this role at some point, I went on this cinematic journey that took me from 1865 to President Obama coming into
office – literally."
Oyelowo also stressed the need to have greater diversity in the movie industry, saying it’s important that different perceptions and experiences are explored on film.
He told The Sunday Times newspaper: "If you only have a certain section of society telling stories, a certain class of society green-lighting and effectively creating culture, it’s a narrow view. And it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. ‘Black doesn’t travel.’ Yeah, because you haven’t allowed it to!"
Meanwhile, David revealed recently that he stayed in character throughout the filming of ‘Selma’.
He shared: "We were shooting in Atlanta, Dr King is from Atlanta, revered in Atlanta – Martin Luther King boulevard, this, that and the other.
"You go and say [in an English accent]: ‘Hello everybody, I’m going to be playing Dr King’ – it’s not so good for 500 extras waiting for you to give a speech so I sort of felt I needed to stay in [character] the whole time."
David Oyelowo says Selma has been a ‘cinematic journey’
