David Oyelowo famous quotes

03-28-2025

You canâ€™t have people curating culture in this way when we need to see things in order to reform from them.
-- David Oyelowo

#Order #People #Reform
I think it's vital to have something outside your acting to keep you rooted in the real world, and help you fill the vacuum. If you have nothing else, it can be unhealthy. For me being a Christian has been invaluable: it simply means acting isn't the centre of my life.
-- David Oyelowo

#Christian #Real #Mean
I would make the tea on a Daniel Day-Lewis set just to observe how he crafts roles like he did in 'My Left Foot.' That was the equivalent of seeing Haley's Comet for me. I just couldn't understand how that was possible.
-- David Oyelowo

#Feet #Tea #Roles
Find the audience, be excellent, and you will be fine.
-- David Oyelowo

#Excellent #Fine #Audience
I love that as a black person I've experienced not being a minority. I think that's helped me to combat the minority mentality people can have here, which can stop them scaling the heights.
-- David Oyelowo

#Thinking #People #Black
I know I had my equivalents in Adrian Lester and Lenny James when I was at drama school. I remember David Harewood doing 'Othello' at the National, and Adrian Lester having done Cheek by Jowl's famous 'As You Like It and Company' at the Donmar. Not necessarily performances I saw, but just the fact they happened was massively encouraging.
-- David Oyelowo

#Drama #School #Saws
Considering that I'm British and I talk the way I do, I love it when a director takes a chance on me.
-- David Oyelowo

#Directors #Way #Chance
I seem to be able to disassociate my insecurities. I know a lot of actors - some of the best actors in the world - can't bear to watch themselves and I have to say I can't relate to that.
-- David Oyelowo

#Insecurity #Watches #Actors
Asher means 'happy and blessed' which embodies my eldest. Caleb means 'stubborn and tenacious dog' and I can't even tell you how much that is my little boy! It was a useful warning.
-- David Oyelowo

#Dog #Blessed #Mean
I was sometimes called 'coconut' when I was at school.
-- David Oyelowo

#School #Coconuts #Sometimes
Because I was aspirational, I did my work, I was respectful to my teachers, I experienced a lot of bullying from the black kids. My friends were largely white or Asian.
-- David Oyelowo

#Teacher #Bullying #Kids
Getting to do what I think was my fifth BBC drama with Nikki Amuka-Bird - we've done 'Shoot The Messenger,' 'Five Days,' 'The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency,' 'Born Equal' and now 'Small Island' - was another highlight for me. And filming in Jamaica was great, too.
-- David Oyelowo

#Drama #Thinking #Islands
It's fascinating to work with a company of actors of such different ages, experience and talents. I'm one of a generation brought up on television whose acting is more 'naturalistic', whereas with some of the older generation it's more heightened. But I think there's room for both styles.
-- David Oyelowo

#Thinking #Style #Age
One of the things I have an allergic reaction to playing, especially as a black actor, is the mandatory kind of best friend/cop/detective type. You will never see me in that movie.
-- David Oyelowo

#Friendship #Black #Detectives
I think until Britain acknowledges just how much of a presence black people had here before the Sixties, then there are certain stories that are not going to be inclusive of what I have to offer.
-- David Oyelowo

#Thinking #People #Black
We can't afford to deny our past in a bid to be empowered. But what we can do is contextualize the past.
-- David Oyelowo

#Past #Deny #Empowered
I hear God as an audible voice.
-- David Oyelowo

#Voice
I am a father, I am very aware of the things that I'm putting out in the world knowing that one day my children will watch the work that I've done. I want to be able to stand by it.
-- David Oyelowo

#Children #Father #Knowing
I admire many actors, though I don't think there's anyone whose career I would want to mirror sort of by the beats. What I'm really looking to do is constantly defy expectations. I'm very curious to see if you can actually have a character actor and a movie star's career combined.
-- David Oyelowo

#Stars #Character #Thinking
For me, I'm always looking for opportunities to work with people who are better than me, who are more experienced than me, people from whom I can learn. And who could I learn more from than someone with an unprecedented movie star career that has spanned over thirty years whose name is Tom Cruise?
-- David Oyelowo

#Stars #Opportunity #Years
One of the things the BBC does better than anyone is period drama.
-- David Oyelowo

#Drama #Doe #Periods
I love tennis, love it!
-- David Oyelowo

#Tennis
I like to think of myself as a physical actor.
-- David Oyelowo

#Thinking #Actors
I don't have a tailor, but I do love clothes.
-- David Oyelowo

#Clothes #Tailors
I consider myself a human being, a Christian, a father, a husband, so many things, before being a black person.
-- David Oyelowo

#Christian #Husband #Father
My parents are very hard working people who did everything they could for their children. I have two brothers and they worked dog hard to give us an education and provide us with the most comfortable life possible. My dad provided for his family daily. So, yes, that is definitely in my DNA.
-- David Oyelowo

#Dog #Brother #Dad
Excellence is the best weapon against prejudice.
-- David Oyelowo

#Excellence #Prejudice #Weapons
I have a bee in my bonnet as to how few black historical figures one sees on film; incredible stories, stories from which we are living the legacy and which just don't get made.
-- David Oyelowo

#Historical #Black #Stories
I turned down a lot of easier opportunities in order to go for the things that I really and ultimately wanted to do. And what's really nice is that it's starting to work. I've been an actor for coming up on 14 years now and the level of activity that's taking place now is a culmination of a slow cooker approach to as opposed to a microwave.
-- David Oyelowo

#Nice #Opportunity #Order

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