David Oyelowo Draws Parallels Between Himself and the King He Plays in 'A United Kingdom'
— -- David Oyelowo’s newest role is taking him into some familiar territory.
He stars in the film, “A United Kingdom,” a true story of an African king, Seretse Khama of Botswana, who was exiled after marrying Ruth Williams, a white English office clerk, played by Rosamund Pike. Their interracial marriage does not sit well with the British or Botswana governments.
Oyelowo himself is married to a white woman. In a recent appearance on “Popcorn with Peter Travers,” Oyelowo said his experiences of interracial marriage have been vastly different from the film. He described one encounter that involved his wife.
“There’s a scene in the film that’s partly inspired by something that happened to Jess and I. We were on a train in the UK not long after we got married. And there were a group of guys that clearly didn’t enjoy the fact that this black guy was with this white woman," Oyelowo said.
He continued, "And they started taunting us. And we got off at our station. They got off and went to attack me. And she screamed at them and said, ‘Don’t you dare touch him!’ And they froze and walked away. There’s actually a similar scene to that in the film.”
There are more similarities between Oyelowo and the king he plays in the film.
“My own father, who is from the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria, married my mom who is from the Ebo tribe. And that was taboo,” Oyelowo, 40, told Travers. “And she, like Ruth Williams, was also a commoner. And my dad and mom had to elope to the UK to get married.”
When Travers asked Oyelowo to share more about his life growing up, Oyelowo told a hilarious story about how he actually learned the truth about his family's roots.
“My dad has these tribal marks on his face, which are an indicator of the royal family that he’s from,” Oyelowo explained. “But when I was younger, he told me that he had fought a tiger, and that’s why he had these tribal marks on his face. So I went to school saying, ‘Don’t mess with me because my dad has fought a tiger. He will take you out. And he would come and get me from school and people would see the marks and they would leave me alone. It wasn’t until we got back to Nigeria, and I was picked up from the airport by my uncles, and I thought, ‘Everyone’s fought a tiger daddy!’ And he said, ‘Oh it’s not a tiger, it’s because we are from a royal family.”
Watch the video above for the full interview.
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"A United Kingdom" hits theaters everywhere this Friday.
