David Oyelowo stayed in character throughout the filming of ‘Selma’.
The 38-year-old British actor – who put on an American accent for his role as Dr Martin Luther King in the biographical drama – has revealed how he kept the accent at all times even when he wasn’t in front of a camera.
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 took his inspiration from his previous co-star, Daniel Day Lewis, who he worked alongside on ‘Lincoln’.
He added: ”I felt I had to stay in character the whole time. Partly because I did this film ‘Lincoln’, I had a scene with Daniel Day Lewis – my favourite actor of all time – and he would stay in character the whole time. I felt like that was the blueprint of how to get this right.”
The decision left David unable to talk to his wife, Jessica Oyelowo – with whom he has four children – when he was on set because she found it ”weird”.
Speaking on ‘The Talk’, he said: ”It was weird for my wife though because we were moving house at the time and she called me once about curtains …
”And then I said [in an American accent]: ‘Well I think we should go for…’ and she went, ‘Stop, stop, we will do this after you wrap. I cannot talk like this. That’s weird.”’
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David Oyelowo’s accent challenge
British actor David Oyelowo has revealed that he continued to put on his American accent throughout the filming for ‘Selma’ even when he wasn’t on camera.