David Oyelowo | The Letter That Slipped Through
Outside Holloway Road tube station in North London, a former teacher stopped David Oyelowo and told him something she said she wouldn't say to any of her other students: that he could act professionally, and that she wanted to help. Jill Foster had taught him theatre studies at sixth form, back when he was a shy kid struggling to reintegrate into British life after seven years in Nigeria. She had already pointed him toward a youth theatre he'd never heard of, and toward the Prince's Trust, which paid the fee his parents wouldn't. Now she was explaining that drama school existed. He hadn't known. She helped with the applications and the auditions, and he got a scholarship to LAMDA. He also met his wife, Jessica, at that youth theatre.
Years later he became the first Black actor to play an English king at the Royal Shakespeare Company. An Oxford don said the country opened itself to ridicule. Hate mail came to the stage door and had to be screened; one letter got through, and he stopped reading a line in. What he took from it was an idea he can articulate now and couldn't then: the objection was not to a Black man onstage but to a Black man occupying the top of the hierarchy.
In this conversation with David Begnaud, he talks about the sense that came to him during prayer and fasting in 2007 that he would play Martin Luther King — and the seven years, four directors, and one flat rejection between that and Selma. About shooting it while his mother lay in a vegetative state. About his father, who used to tell his sons the tribal marks on his face came from fighting a tiger, and who insisted his son go to Canada to shoot Nyad — dying the first morning of the shoot, in a house his son wasn't in. And about the three people he credits with everything: Jill, Jessica, and Oprah, all of whom stood together in one photograph on his opening night.
Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: www.thedogoodcrew.com
Thank you to Canva for believing in the power of storytelling and helping us bring this podcast to life: https://canva.com
Chapters ☀️
ABOUT THIS PODCAST:
The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways.
David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning.
Host: David Begnaud
Guest: David Oyelowo
Executive Producer: Olivier Delfosse
Associate Producer: Jonah Johnson
Booker: Sully Bloch
Director of Photography: Foster Parks
Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative)
Director of Social: Mariah Maull
Theme Music: Slipstream
Post-Production: Longwave Digital
CONNECT WITH US:
The Person Who Believed In Me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast
More description
Outside Holloway Road tube station in North London, a former teacher stopped David Oyelowo and told him something she said she wouldn't say to any of her other students: that he could act professionally, and that she wanted to help. Jill Foster had taught him theatre studies at sixth form, back when he was a shy kid struggling to reintegrate into British life after seven years in Nigeria. She had already pointed him toward a youth theatre he'd never heard of, and toward the Prince's Trust, which paid the fee his parents wouldn't. Now she was explaining that drama school existed. He hadn't known. She helped with the applications and the auditions, and he got a scholarship to LAMDA. He also met his wife, Jessica, at that youth theatre.
Years later he became the first Black actor to play an English king at the Royal Shakespeare Company. An Oxford don said the country opened itself to ridicule. Hate mail came to the stage door and had to be screened; one letter got through, and he stopped reading a line in. What he took from it was an idea he can articulate now and couldn't then: the objection was not to a Black man onstage but to a Black man occupying the top of the hierarchy.
In this conversation with David Begnaud, he talks about the sense that came to him during prayer and fasting in 2007 that he would play Martin Luther King — and the seven years, four directors, and one flat rejection between that and Selma. About shooting it while his mother lay in a vegetative state. About his father, who used to tell his sons the tribal marks on his face came from fighting a tiger, and who insisted his son go to Canada to shoot Nyad — dying the first morning of the shoot, in a house his son wasn't in. And about the three people he credits with everything: Jill, Jessica, and Oprah, all of whom stood together in one photograph on his opening night.
Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: www.thedogoodcrew.com
Thank you to Canva for believing in the power of storytelling and helping us bring this podcast to life: https://canva.com
Chapters ☀️
ABOUT THIS PODCAST:
The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew and often called "America's storyteller." In each episode, David sits down with world-class guests to ask one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? Big names. Honest stories. Relatable takeaways.
David is also a CBS News contributor and host of the weekly segment Beg Knows America, which airs every Monday morning.
Host: David Begnaud
Guest: David Oyelowo
Executive Producer: Olivier Delfosse
Associate Producer: Jonah Johnson
Booker: Sully Bloch
Director of Photography: Foster Parks
Live Production Technician: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative)
Director of Social: Mariah Maull
Theme Music: Slipstream
Post-Production: Longwave Digital
CONNECT WITH US:
The Person Who Believed In Me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast
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