David Oyelowo lives for drama. He “loves the challenge” of taking on complex stories and characters. And right now, he says, the theater is one of the best places to do that. “Drama has almost become a swear word within the film industry,” the 48-year-old actor, director, and producer tells Vogue. With films today, he says, “It’s more like, Tell me obviously what it says on the tin and I will sell that tin.”
Born in Oxford, Oyelowo spent his early years in south London before he and his family moved to Nigeria, returning to the British capital when he was 14. On the advice of a teacher at his school in Islington, Oyelowo started to pursue acting and landed a scholarship to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Several years after graduating, he became widely known to British audiences for his role as MI5 officer Danny Hunter in cult aughts BBC spy thriller Spooks, but it was his portrayal of Martin Luther King Jr. in Ava DuVernay’s 2014 historical drama Selma—following supporting roles in The Help, The Butler, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes—that proved to be his Hollywood breakthrough, earning him numerous accolades. Last year’s The After, an emotional short directed by Misan Harriman in which Oyelowo plays a grieving widower and father, received a nod from the Oscars. Offscreen, he has founded production company Yoruba Saxon, alongside his actor wife Jessica, which focuses on creating “values-based content.”
But for now, he is back in the UK from his home in Los Angeles to lead a production of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus at the National Theatre. “I love my kids, I love my wife, I love my house,” he smiles. To get him to leave any of those things, “it has to be because I’m saying something worth saying.” Directed by Lyndsey Turner, this adaptation of Shakespeare’s political tragedy follows Roman warrior Coriolanus, whose flash-in-the-pan fame results in him standing for high office. But his misalignment with (and dislike of) the common people is soon revealed. Sound familiar? As we hurtle towards November’s election, with Donald Trump and Kamala Harris going head to head, it’s “a pretty intriguing time to have this play on,” Oyelowo concedes.
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Vogue: Some of your first acting experiences happened through a National Theatre youth program called Connections; is this something of a homecoming for you?
David Oyelowo: I was actually involved in the very first one. It’s about to be the 30th anniversary, which is so bonkers. I was a teenager at the time, and that’s the closest I’ve come to performing there. I’ve never done a play at the National professionally. It’s literally one of my favorite places to be. If I’m in London, I have to hit Southbank, and I have to hit the foyer of the National. There’s just something about it. Everything I love about the UK weirdly coalesces in that building: the culture, the theater, the people, the Thames, the multicultural diasporic presence. It’s all there. To be doing my favorite Shakespeare in one of my favorite buildings on my favorite stage in the world is a homecoming. [It’s] definitely something that has been on my bucket list.
Why do you connect, particularly, with this Shakespearean protagonist?
I love an underdog, and Coriolanus is a much better play than people give it credit for. The challenge of it is to start with a bang and keep that going through the five acts. And that is difficult. He’s also a difficult character to love, but I love his complexity. I gravitate towards characters like the one played by Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood—characters that feel intensely human, and you question their likability, but there is also relatability in there. Also the political nature of the play. It really looks at the cult of personality in politics. Look at the political landscape in America right now—people are focusing less on policies and more on personalities.
It feels as though the West End is pulling in more big Hollywood names than ever.
It’s a trend born out of necessity. It’s very hard nowadays to find support—from the audience, from financiers, from studios or streamers, for work that is meaningful. Audience habits changed indisputably after the pandemic and streamers are much more focused on what—I personally think—are lowest-common-denominator movies. Disposable movies that are here today, gone tomorrow. It’s very hard to find what we used to call a modern classic now. Something that stays in the movie theater for a long time, that people keep going back to see. Theater is incredibly exposing. You can’t hide behind the editor or camerawork or marketing. It is you. I haven’t done a play for eight years, so I definitely feel that inevitable fear in rehearsals where you think, What the hell am I doing? Why did I agree to do this play? I’m going to be terrible. You can feel when the play isn’t working in the room. It’s incredibly humbling and vulnerable, but when it works, there’s nothing quite like it.
Why should people who aren’t behind the scenes care that it’s harder to get meaningful stories made?
I consider storytelling an immense privilege, because I think my job is to hold a mirror up to humanity. That may feel lofty, that may feel conceited to people, but that is how I feel. It is one of the most powerful tools in the world for breaking down prejudice, for healing. I’ve seen work that I’ve done have that effect on people, bring them to somewhere they didn’t know they wanted to go or even thought existed. There’s a reason why the Obamas have a deal at Netflix—it s incredibly powerful as a medium. I have heard certain executives at studios say things need to be [second-screen-friendly so people can look at their phones while watching the show] and still understand what’s going on, and I’m incredibly intolerant of it. It’s a bit chicken and egg. If you don’t care about the attention to detail, the audience doesn’t care. I do think there’s a social responsibility to try and not make disposable art. Selma took seven years to make, A United Kingdom took seven years to make. I’ve been on a 30-year journey to get to Coriolanus. The things I really believe in, I stick to.
So, like Coriolanus, you’re popular… Would you go into politics?
Coriolanus is a warrior. He does something quite specific, and because he does that thing incredibly well, there is a notion that he is worthy of leadership, that those skills have somehow earned him the right to do other things. I remember being at the Oscars, and there was [Ukrainian president] Zelensky, a former entertainer, and he had that thing that makes you lean in and go, I want to hear what that guy has to say. The gray politician that is probably good at their job, whom you couldn’t care less about, is probably ineffectual in different ways. It’s not always a good idea though. Sorry about the giant name drop, but my friend Oprah Winfrey is constantly being asked to be president because of her compassion, because of the way she makes people feel. She couldn’t be less interested if she tried. Why? Because she knows that in politics, there is compromise. Compromise of the self, of values, of ethics. It’s inherent in modern-day politics. [Politicians] have to have fluid ethics, because the modern political system is one of backroom bargaining in order to be able to effect the changes you want. So there is a fundamental flaw in the idea of taking someone whom you deem to be righteous and worthy and placing them within politics. And: I like being at home too much.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity throughout.
Coriolanus is at the National Theatre until November 9.