YouSaid · the spoken record

David Oyelowo

lines on the record
26
first
2016-09-30
most recent
2016-09-30
sittings or episodes
1
sources
podcast

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  1. “Hope is that this becomes a model for what, because I know we need it, but I just pray that it attains the level of success that means that we continue there to erode not just Disney's, but Warner Brothers, Universal, Sony, Paramount, all of their excuses to not make movies like this.”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Yeah, exactly. I mean, thankfully, they're very happy with it, but honestly, I'm sorry, I just go back to Tendo Naganda. I mean, you know, he had great success with Cinderella, that he was a big part of getting that film made, saving Mr. Banks, which he got made. So again, excellence. Excellence bred success, which bred opportunity. And that meant that we got to go and make this movie. Mira Naya, the work that she's been doing positioned her in order to, when this came along, she was right there. Lupita, in 12 years a slave, eroded their excuses to not make this film. They were talking about this from just as I had done Selman. So thankfully, me as an addition to it, we just literally, through excellence and the pursuit of excellence, it got to here. So I honestly don't have a real answer for you as to how this happened. All I can...”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Look, this hasn't happened before, is the truth of the matter It hasn't happened before. And even when we sit there thinking of how to market the film, who's going to come and see the film, what we tend to do in Hollywood is we think about comps, what is the film like? We just don't have comps. So that's amazing. I mean, in a world of sequels and imagined IP and all this kind of stuff, to have something that you're literally going, I don't know that a film like this exists and it be made by the biggest media company in the world is truly incredible. So, you know, how this happened, I think even Disney is going, what? Did we?”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “I have no idea what you're talking about. The doll is on its way. Do you have interchangeable Robert Katende shirts We've got this sewn up.”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “If you constantly remain on the undeniable path of excellence, you literally shame people into giving you your opportunities, into making the opportunities that you create yourself. And so I think that we are more and more waking up to that. I know that she is woken up to that. It's certainly something I try to do. But it doesn't mean it's easy. She is well on her way to continuing to be a game changer, I think.”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “That's how you keep the narrative going because you have to, the best weapon, in my view, against prejudice is excellence”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “No, exactly. It's not going to be the case for Bree Larson, who's just won the Oscar. It's not going to be the case for Amy Adams. So, you know, what I would say is that she's doing it absolutely right. She went on to Broadway and got nominated for Tony.”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Is not what is going to happen, unfortunately, because of this confusion as to, okay, she's got this amazing dark skin. What do we do with that? What do we do with that? What do we do with that? And the truth of the matter is, again, to talk about diversity and inclusion, if Tendo Nigenda doesn't exist, if he isn't walking this project down the halls beyond 12 years a slave, This is the first time we're seeing Lupita in the flesh since then. And that bears out”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “It's a really good question because up until now, what has tended to happen when a black woman in particular is afforded this kind of notoriety, this kind of success, winning an Oscar, being in a hit film, it's really difficult. Hollywood finds it very difficult to know what to do with them. But even beyond that, it's just, okay, so what do we do with them now? Do we pair them with Brad Pitt? Do we pair them with George Clooney? The Jennifer Lawrence route.”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “Just amazing, and she is one of the reasons the movie gets made. Because when you don't have someone like that that gives a company like Disney the confidence to make the film because at the end of the day, you want people in these movies that draw a crowd. And if you haven't had the opportunity to nurture that talent to the point whereby she is, as you say, a movie star, the truth of the matter is these films don't get made. And so her existence to me is both a miracle and just a consistent source of warm inner, fuzzy loveliness. And she is just, I mean, I don't know if you saw, I remember one day when we were shooting and I saw her practicing her waddle. Did you see? Because that's not how Lupita”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Part of the team exactly It's a complete joy, especially when there's such an incredible human being. I mean, she really is one of the loveliest people I have met. And she's just, she's so talented. She's so gracious. But what blew me away about Lupita in this movie is that as you will see in some of those scenes with her, is that we now have a woman on planet Earth who can completely pass for a Ugandan corn seller in the slums of Cartway. She can pass for it. You can have the camera go by and real corn seller, real corn seller, movie star, real corn seller, real corn seller, and buy it. Is just incredible because I don't know that we've had the combination of that talent, that beauty, that amazing hue of her skin combined in a world-renowned movie star. And that is...”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a very real thing. Everywhere you go. And that's what's so great about getting to see different places, different people. I guarantee that's going to creep into schools. That's going to become something that the amount of times I've spent teaching people how to do that. But yeah, it's a fantastic thing that they do out there. I learned so much.”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “So, in my house, we call ourselves African Americans. Just to lump everything together nicely. So, yeah, you know, that journey I've been on has really helped me drill down and get a sense of what I want to do, which is something that you don't really get to know as an artist all the time in terms of the kind of films I want to make.”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “Yes, exactly. And I think that these films got made to give us context as to how we got to this moment. And so through doing those movies, I got this unexpected education, unexpected love, actually for African American history, African Americans, because I'm British, I'm Nigerian, I wouldn't have identified as African American, but I now have my four children. Two of them are Americans. They were born here. I just became a citizen three weeks ago.”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “I did a film called The Help as well, and a film called Lincoln, all of which really cover the last 150 years of what it is to be black in America. Yes, I did. Oh dear. But I couldn't have predicted that would happen to my career, but I can absolutely track it with the presidency of Barack Obama. You know, I think those films got made because this country, as it still is, reeling from the fact that we've had an African American president for eight years.”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Well, I had this incredible journey. I did a series of films that really went into the American experience, but more specifically the African American experience. I did a film called Red Tails about the Tuskegee Airmen.”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “All of my boxes in terms of what I want to contribute, what I want my footprint to be as an artist in terms of the work I do.”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “In setting myself that remit, what I mean by that is film culturally has, I think, marginalized what it is to be a person of color. It has marginalized the female voice as well behind the camera, in front of the camera. So few female directors getting to operate on a scale of this, which has to change. And so few people of color unable to be the protagonists. And so being afforded the opportunities that you quite rightly say, I have been afforded, I try to take every opportunity where I'm blessed with the opportunity to do a film, to move the ball down the field, as it pertains to what I deem to be the African experience, the African-American experience, the black experience I want to champion the female experience in all of its complexity. So yes, when this project came along, it ticked.”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Robert Kitende, who is a saint, I mean, you know, one of the challenges in playing him was how to make him feel like a human being. Yes, he's great. So incredible. I mean, as a human being, and I hugely admire him and what he has done and is doing. But for me, I am very, very blessed to do what I do, but I also really appreciate how impactful cinema is culturally. And having been in films that I have seen impact And that is very complex.”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “And she came home from our time in Uganda, opened her fridge, her full fridge, and had a full-on breakdown. And the reason she had this breakdown, she told me in an explicit terms, she said, I looked at my fridge full of food and I knew that in my life I don't have an iota of the joy I saw in the faces and in the lives of people who have nothing. And it made me completely reassess my life and what I deem to be of value. And that to me is why a film like this is of value. Because to be able to see joy, genius, ingenuity, family, love, grace in the midst of that is universally beautiful. I think anyone anywhere can appreciate the value of that. That's why you don't shy away from it. Just tell the truth of it.”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “Yeah. One doesn't want to deny the inherent problems that exist anywhere in a bid to redress the balance of what has gone on before. You just want to tell the truth. And I was in Uganda over 10 years ago and I did a film there called The Last King of Scotland. That's a great idea. Different movie. Different kind of movie. And we had a great experience doing it. And one of my lasting memories from that film is our makeup artist, who is a lady from London, very affluent lady. We were in Uganda and we all just couldn't get over how people who had and have so little can be so joyful. A lot of them existing on a banana or two a day.”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “Probably very compelling as a chess teacher. Another thing that really struck me about the movie was there was poverty, but that wasn't the story. It wasn't all about sadness. It wasn't all about struggle. There were a lot of other aspects to it. And in our conversation earlier, that seems like that's much more realistic view of how it really is to live even in Catwe.”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “I think that a female director directing this is why you have an 11-year-old girl as the center of the story. That's why we need female directors. That's why we need different voices telling these stories. It's because of Tendonagenda being at the center of getting this made that my character isn't a white missionary, which is what it has been up until when I say a white saver. That's how this film would have got made 10 years ago.”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “I point out Tender because this is diversity and inclusion in action. He is of Ugandan heritage. There is no way, I think, that this film will be getting made if he didn't make it his passion and he didn't walk it down the halls to get it made. And I think built into this from a diversity and inclusion point of view, it's made by Mira Naya, a woman who, yes, give it up for Mira. A wonderful female director who has called Uganda her home for over 27 years.”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “Yeah, I mean, look, it's no secret that the narrative thus far cinematically when it comes to Africa has been largely through white eyes. I love all you white people in here. Don't get this twisted. And not only through white eyes in terms of who's making the movie, but in terms of the protagonists as well, this phrase white savior has become something that is more well known now. And that's largely how we have seen Africa. As an African myself, I know for a fact that we are people who are very self-possessed, who have more than enough ability to progress individually and autonomously. And you don't tend to see that in film. And diversity and inclusion have become buzzwords in Hollywood, thankfully. But this is it in action. A wonderful executive at Disney by the name of Tender Nagenda, who is here. Where are you, Tendo?”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “Thank you. Thank you. I really, really, really appreciate that reaction. It was a labor of love for us, as you can probably tell from watching the film. These are images we don't tend to get to see of people we don't tend to get to see in this way. And as a child of Nigerian parents myself having my sister. I feel somewhat more comfortable now. But anyway, it's just amazing to be able to share these kind of images with you guys and for it to be so well received. So thank you.”

    2016-09-30 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: Mastering the Game (with David Oyelowo) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source