When David Oyelowo, compact and poised in his white suit, sits in a throne-like chair outside his hilltop home, it's easy to imagine him as Tarzana's king. After all, Oyelowo's grandfather had been a tribal king in Nigeria. The British-born actor played King Henry VI in a Royal Shakespeare Company production at age 25 and later played the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in his groundbreaking 2014 film, “Selma.”
Now enjoying the fruits of the roughly six dozen films and television shows he's made since moving to Los Angeles in 2007, Oyelowo reigns over a San Fernando Valley fiefdom that includes a second home for his production company up north. and a vacant lot in the south. , three dogs, four children and his wife, actress Jessica, whom he met as a teenager performing in “The Threepenny Opera” shortly before enrolling in the famous and rigorous London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts.
On a recent afternoon, Oyelowo enjoys his moment in the sun a few months after completing a tough six-month shoot in Texas. There, he produced and starred in “Lawmen: Bass Reeves,” which dramatizes the real-life adventures of a slave-turned-deputy marshal of Arkansas who rounded up frontier outlaws during the Reconstruction era. The show debuted last fall on Paramount+ and quickly set a record as the streamer's most-watched global series premiere. It only took Oyelowo eight years to get there.
“When I first heard about Bass Reeves in 2014, it seemed completely out of the question that we hadn't had a major movie or TV show about this great western story alongside Wyatt Earp, Butch, Sundance and Billy the Kid,” he says. Oyelowo later. in his office. “So that's where the obsession began.”
Teaming up with producer David Permut, Oyelowo pitched a Bass Reeves project to networks and cable companies in 2015. “Everyone rejected us,” he remembers. “The overwhelming narrative was: 'No one is making Westerns, they've had their day.' So we were like, 'Okay, I guess we're the only ones who feel the same way about Bass Reeves.'”
Playing Reeves bass is “the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, physically, emotionally and mentally,” says David Oyelowo.
(Lauren Smith/Paramount+)
Two years later, Oyelowo tried again. “Pierce Brosnan was making a western, as were the Coen brothers; There was a show called 'Godless'. This time the rejections were peppered with the idea that now all He's making westerns, so we won't do it. When the dust settled, [I realized] “The reason Bass Reeves’ story had not been told could only be because of the color of his skin.”
Then came the 2018 blockbuster “Black Panther,” followed by Taylor Sheridan’s hit western “Yellowstone,” and everything changed. Describing Sheridan's role as executive producer of “Bass Reeves,” Oyelowo says, “Taylor didn't write 'Bass Reeves,' he didn't direct it or produce it, so to speak, but he put the Western at the forefront.” “Yellowstone” being the number one show in America, and the defense of it is what got this done.” Oyelowo also notes, “In the wake of the murder of George Floyd, we were trying to do better as a country when it came to the representation of people of color, so there was a perfect storm where I felt like the time had come for this.” show. “
Once “Lawmen: Bass Reeves,” created by showrunner Chad Feehan, got the green light, Oyelowo prepared for the lead role by improving his horseback riding skills and studying recordings of former slaves from the 19th century. Working with dialect coach Denise Woods, he imbued Bass Reeves with a husky accent based on the character's occupation and exhaustion. “He was a failed farmer for 10 years, so given the amount of dust Bass Reeves would have inhaled doing that work, the voice reaches here,” he says, pointing to his chest and suddenly sounding like a different person. . “Every time I open my mouth like Bass Reeves, it's not me.”
David Oyelowo stars in “Lawmen: Bass Reeves.” (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Citing Daniel Day-Lewis, Christian Bale and Jeffrey Wright as examples of total immersion acting, Oyelowo says: “I love what I do as an actor with a character like Bass Reeves, because the way he walks, the way he talks. “His way of thinking: everything about him, outside of his values about family and justice, is different.”
“Bass Reeves” began production in early 2023. “It's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, physically, emotionally and mentally,” Oyelowo says. “In January it is incredibly cold weather and by the time we finished, around June, people were suffering from heatstroke. We also had to fight two strikes. I was in almost all the scenes. It started early: at 5 in the morning, you're on horseback. But every time you want to throw in the towel, I am overwhelmed by the blessing of finally being able to tell this story.”
The series follows eight episodes of relentless turmoil beginning with the 1862 Battle of Pea Ridge, when the enslaved Reeves is forced by his master (Shea Whigham) to fight for the Confederacy. Reeves later flees to Indian Territory and settles with a Creek woman on a drought-stricken farm. A grizzled agent (Dennis Quaid), noting Reeves' marksmanship and fluency in Native American languages, recommends him to “hanging judge” Isaac Parker (Donald Sutherland), who appoints Reeves to ride to the frontier and capture criminals.
Reeves' Most Troublesome Arrest: Jackrabbit Cole (Tosin Morohunfola), a black man accused of killing a sadistic white rancher. “For me,” says Oyelowo, “the series is largely based on the oily, nebulous, slippery, constantly redefining notion of what justice meant in this country at the time. “Bass Reeves is representative of the contradiction that is America.”
David Oyelowo at his home in Los Angeles in April.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Oyelowo and his team cast a mostly black ensemble, including the deputy's tough wife, Jenny Reeves (Lauren E. Banks), along with Native American Forrest Goodluck as fellow rogue Billy Crow. Oyelowo made sure to populate the series with black and brown faces as a better-late-than-never corrective to the distorted versions of Hollywood history he absorbed as a child living on a south London council estate. “When I was 6, 7, and 8, I loved watching Westerns, but there was no one like Bass Reeves on my screen,” Oyelowo says. “When I was 6 years old, every time I aspired to be a cowboy, I did it through the filter of being a white person. Subconsciously, that tells you that you are peripheral.”
Front and center on the wall behind him is the graphic realization of a deferred childhood dream. It’s a “Bass Reeves” poster of Oyelowo prancing on a beautiful white horse in grand cowboy style. He says, “A lot of people have thanked me for 'Bass Reeves' because their kids are growing up in a world where seeing a black cowboy has become normalized. When I finished 'Bass Reeves,' the predominant feeling, the exhale, was one of relief: now it exists.”
