{"id":945,"date":"2017-02-09T12:12:09","date_gmt":"2017-02-09T16:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/?p=945"},"modified":"2017-02-09T12:12:09","modified_gmt":"2017-02-09T16:12:09","slug":"david-oyelowo-talks-united-kingdom-sacrificial-love-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/2017\/02\/david-oyelowo-talks-united-kingdom-sacrificial-love-faith.html","title":{"rendered":"David Oyelowo talks \u2018A United Kingdom,\u2019 sacrificial love, and faith"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

A United Kingdom<\/em>, releasing Friday from Fox Searchlight, is a beautifully shot historical drama about the Prince of Beuchuanaland, Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo), who falls in love with Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike) while studying in London. The couple\u2019s love faces strong opposition, not only from friends and family but also from governments and empires who seek to force the dissolution of their marriage.<\/p>\n

Rosamund Pike as \u201cRuth Williams,\u201d Madison Manowe as \u201cBaby Jaqueline,\u201d and David Oyelowo as \u201cSeretse Khama\u201d in the film A United Kingdom. Photo by Stanislav Honzik. \u00a9 2016 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Oyelowo, who also served as a producer, capably captures the anguish of the young prince and together with Pike, the two actors are captivating in their respective roles. It is the latest starring vehicle for Oyelowo, whose impressive film resume includes Selma<\/em>, Captive<\/em>, Queen of Katwe,<\/em> Interstellar<\/em>, Jack Reacher<\/em>, Rise of the Planet of the Apes<\/em>, and The Butler<\/em>. In this exclusive interview for Reel Faith, he explains his selection of starring roles as well as how his Christian faith informs his career. At the end of the article, listen to a podcast of the interview.<\/p>\n
**The film is full of beautiful shots. It\u2019s so gorgeous. We saw a screener but I imagine it\u2019s an amazing cinematic experience. <\/strong><\/p>\n**
**We had a wonderful cinematographer but in Botswana you just have to point the camera. There\u2019s beauty everywhere.<\/p>\n**
Some of the roles that you\u2019ve done, they have great meaning to them. These films have a message, whether it\u2019s Queen of Katwe<\/em>, Selma<\/em>, or *A United Kingdom<\/em>. Several are feel good movies. Is that something that you\u2019re looking for or is that the way the roles have come?<\/strong><\/p>\n*
Inevitably, they are projects I\u2019ve been drawn to which I\u2019m sure is linked to who I am as a person and what I believe in, what it is I want to put out into the world. It\u2019s for a myriad of reasons but primarily speaking there are definitely leave projects and characters that I am drawn to because of what I believe in.<\/p>\n
<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>It\u2019s not a secret that you\u2019re a Christian, a believer. How does that play into what you choose?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I think that I want to be the person is not just a talker, but a doer. As a Christian, I want my life to reflect what I believe, but also as a father I want what I say to chime with what I actually do. Some of the films\u2014not all of the films, I do try to do some films that are pure entertainment\u2014some of the films certainly that you\u2019ve mentioned are very much in line with what I believe in. So when you look at <em>A United Kingdom<\/em>, the overlap for me with my faith is seeing the sacrificial love in action. Jesus is, to my mind, the best example of sacrificial love in relation to what He did on the cross for humanity. What do you see between this man and woman is a love that isn\u2019t built on lust. It isn\u2019t built on self-service. These two people really, really care about each other and want to be with each other and are highly invested in the other person\u2019s well-being and happiness. In my mind that is a very lovely version of love and one that goes on to triumph in the context of this particular story.<\/p>\n<p><strong>One of the things that I took away from it is that in society we are cautioned to choose your battles. And sometimes we just give up the fight too easily. But this man was determined and he was fighting for love. For me, the question is what is that that is so sacred to you that you were not going to reason it out and give up?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The thing that I find that\u2019s so wonderful, not just about Seretse and Ruth, yes Seretse say was prepared to fight for what he believed in and for who he loved, but he would never have been able to do it without Ruth\u2019s strength and her love for him. Like the Bible says, \u201cOne will put a thousand to flight and two will put ten thousand to flight.\u201d I think it\u2019s seeing the combination of these two people, how two people from entirely different countries and entirely different racial backgrounds, how they come together and are able to come against massive political establishments, two different continents, three different cultures, and go on to win over several years and through many obstacles about their love. The combination of their love for each other is what is what enables them to overcome. So it wasn\u2019t about one person triumphing it was about two people triumphing through their unity.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_947\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-947\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-947\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/720\/2017\/02\/unitedkingdom2.jpg\" alt=\"Rosamund Pike as \u201cRuth Williams\u201d and David Oyelowo as \u201cSeretse Khama\u201d in the film A United Kingdom Photo courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures. \u00a9 2016 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved\" width=\"600\" height=\"432\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-947\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rosamund Pike as \u201cRuth Williams\u201d and David Oyelowo as \u201cSeretse Khama\u201d in the film A United Kingdom Photo courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures. \u00a9 2016 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>You and Rosamond same to bring so much to that those rolls. I know they could\u2019ve gotten other people, but there is a depth that comes with your performances. It\u2019s very engaging. Can you talk about working with her?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yeah, and thank you for saying so. That\u2019s one of those things you just can\u2019t plan ahead. I think everyone knows now how phenomenal of an actress Rosamond is, especially anyone who saw her in <em>Gone Girl<\/em> but myriad of other roles she\u2019s played before. And I had worked with her on a film we did together called Jack Reacher. We got along together, never knowing that there would be any chemistry between us that would ring as true on the screen. But I think the reason why as you say you can fill a real commitment in terms of what we portray on screen is because both she and I share a deep admiration for these people, we share a very deep feeling of responsibility to have the love they shared given the purest and best platform as a display, because we both admire and value it so much. I could never bank as a producer of the film that I would find an actress who was so committed to these two people as I was but that was a divine blessing to reach out to Rosamond and feel her passion for them, which was very akin to mine.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What did you do to prepare for the role? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The book is based on a film called <em>Colour Bar<\/em> by Susan Williams. It goes into quite a lot of detail about what happened, both in the run-up to them getting married and in the aftermath of them getting married. Because it was such an explosive story of the time, there are a ton of these rails and footage of both of them. Seretse went on to become Botswana\u2019s first democratically elected president and there\u2019s footage of him, but we also shot in Botswana where all these events took place and where Seretse say was from. We had family members who have museums there we had the archive right there in Botswana that we had access to. When you also have situations like we had of being able to shoot in the very house that they lived in, and Rosamund in the film gives birth in the very hospital that one of their children was given birth to, I think all of that gives another layer of authenticity as well.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Listen below for our exclusive interview with David Oyelowo, including additional commentary.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"audio_iframe\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podbean.com\/media\/player\/aijsz-6783ad\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Popular actor plays title role of Prince Seretse Khama<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2815,"featured_media":946,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[169,174,168,170,171,173,172],"class_list":["post-945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","tag-a-united-kingdom","tag-botswana","tag-david-oyelowo","tag-fox-searchlight","tag-rosamund-pike","tag-ruth-williams","tag-seretse-khama"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - 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