Entertainment
Selma’s David Oyelowo Inspired by Dr. King’s Legacy
On the eve of a scheduled telephone interview with David Oyelowo (pronounced Oh-yellow-oh), star of “Selma” – the acclaimed Ava Duvernay directed feature film, I pondered what could be made of the few precious minutes we would have to talk about his quintessential portrayal of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the revered Civil Rights icon slain for confronting matters of injustice in 1968.
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As a product of the Civil Rights Movement – shaped by the challenges of segregation, denied access, racial slurs, taunts, intentional hatred, white privilege and self-proclaimed entitlement – I was made to believe that a change would surely come through faith, perseverance, accomplishment, and forgiveness.
Much like the era of the 1960s, the soldiers for justice and equality are multicultural, multigenerational and multi-equipped with passion, providence and purpose. Their outcries are echoes of the past and appeals for the future.
Art does imitate life but reality looms larger.
Oyelowo, Image Award winner (The Butler) and Golden Globe nominee, became Martin Luther King Jr. in “Selma.” His transformation, a silhouette of one man deemed king among common men, agitator to malevolent men and spiritual barometer of a presidential man, made to concede his moral consciousness.
Sandra Varner: How did you absorb the weight, the honor of portraying Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the responsibility of telling his story on film?
David Oyelowo: “My admiration of him before this project was immense, of course, but in preparation for this film role, having to seek for the man, husband, father, friend, what we know about him in terms of his oratory…a man who felt fear and did it [led the Civil Rights Movement] anyway.
“Now, on the other side of portraying him, my admiration has gone through the roof.
“Reflecting Dr. King at the timeline of this film, he was two years younger than I am currently; he was 36, I am 38. I can tell you, hand on heart, if I had had 10 years of my life held in the balance fighting for justice, being away from my family, having my every move scrutinized; I don’t know that I could have done it or would have done it. I can, however, relate to him as a husband and father with young children.
“We are now at a time in history when protests are rife again; racial injustice is making itself very clear, amplified again. Similar to the protests in Selma, Alabama, the injustices are racial but also inhuman toward all people. Dr. King advocated on behalf of all people.
“Today’s injustices are an American problem. The power of the image of all people protesting, not just hearing about it, but seeing it, changes the dialogue. I am encouraged by older people involved, younger people involved and all people coming together. The big question that I have for us as a country is, what are our demands?
“Are we articulating demands in a way that we can continue to rally behind so the effort does not dissipate? Dr. King asked for federal intervention and protection. Today, we need police reform.”
SV: There is equally a measure of courage needed and risk assumed when one attempts revisionist history.
Oyelowo: “Yes, I think there is also a divine element involved. I felt God directed me to do this project. I was contacted about it in 2007; then I went on a journey doing other films that taught me–as a foreigner–what it was like to be a Black person in this country for the last 150 years.
“Playing a soldier in “Lincoln” during the period of 1865, I played a Black fighter pilot in “Red Tails,” I played the son of a butler in “The Butler,” I played a preacher in “The Help.” All of the roles were demonstrative in helping me get to this point in my career and I can tell you that I didn’t go after all of these roles, they came to me.
“I have been given the opportunity to do what I love as an actor. If by chance we can see ourselves in the legacy of Dr. King, it will bear out that we all have greatness within us.”
We salute Ava Duvernay, David Oyelowo, Oprah Winfrey and countless others who fought to bring “Selma” to the big screen, in theaters Jan. 9. The gift of this film is proof that the dream is still alive, the promise still intact, our prayers are being answered, and the movement continues to gain momentum.
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Entertainment
O.J. Simpson, 76, Dies of Prostate Cancer
Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson, who rose to fame as a college football player who went on to the NFL and parlayed his talents in acting and sportscasting, succumbed to prostate cancer on April 10, his family announced.
By Post Staff
Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson, who rose to fame as a college football player who went on to the NFL and parlayed his talents in acting and sportscasting, succumbed to prostate cancer on April 10, his family announced.
Born and raised in San Francisco, the Galileo High School graduate was recruited by the University of Southern California after he was on a winning Junior College All-American team.
At USC, he gained wide acclaim as a running back leading to him becoming the No. 1 pick in the AFL-NFL draft in 1969 and joining the Buffalo Bills, where he had demanded – and received — the largest contract in professional sports history: $650,000 over five years. In 1978, the Bills traded Simpson to his hometown team, the San Francisco 49ers, retiring from the game in 1979.
Simpson’s acting career had begun before his pro football career with small parts in 1960s TV (“Dragnet”) before “Roots” and film (“The Klansman,” “The Towering Inferno,” Capricorn One”).
He was also a commentator for “Monday Night Football,” and “The NFL on NBC,” and in the mid-1970s Simpson’s good looks and amiability made him, according to People magazine, “the first b\Black athlete to become a bona fide lovable media superstar.”
The Hertz rent-a-car commercials raised his recognition factor while raising Hertz’s profit by than 50%, making him critical to the company’s bottom line.
It could be said that even more than his success as a football star, the commercials of his running through airports endeared him to the Black community at a time when it was still unusual for a Black person to represent a national, mainstream company.
He remained on Hertz team into the 1990s while also getting income endorsing Pioneer Chicken, Honey Baked Ham and Calistoga water company products and running O.J. Simpson Enterprises, which owned hotels and restaurants.
He married childhood sweetheart Marguerite Whitley when he was 19 and became the father of three children. Before he divorced in 1979, he met waitress and beauty queen Nicole Brown, who he would marry in 1985. A stormy relationship before, during and after their marriage ended, it would lead to a highway car chase as police sought to arrest Simpson for the murder by stabbing of Brown and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994.
The pursuit, arrest, and trial of Simpson were among the most widely publicized events in American history, Wikipedia reported.
Characterized as the “Trial of the Century,” he was acquitted by a jury in 1995 but found liable in the amount of $33 million in a civil action filed by the victims’ families three years later.
Simpson would be ensnared in the criminal justice system 12 years later when he was arrested after forcing his way into a Las Vegas hotel room to recover sports memorabilia he believed belonged to him.
In 2008, he received a sentence of 33 years and was paroled nine years later in 2017.
When his death was announced, Simpson’s accomplishments and downfalls were acknowledged.
Sports analyst Christine Brennan said: “… Even if you didn’t love football, you knew O.J. because of his ability to transcend sports and of course become the businessman and the pitchman that he was.
“And then the trial, and the civil trial, the civil case he lost, and the fall from grace that was extraordinary and well-deserved, absolutely self-induced, and a man that would never be seen the same again,” she added.
“OJ Simpson played an important role in exposing the racial divisions in America,” attorney Alan Dershowitz, an adviser on Simpson’s legal “dream team” told the Associated Press by telephone. “His trial also exposed police corruption among some officials in the Los Angeles Police Department. He will leave a mixed legacy. Great athlete. Many people think he was guilty. Some think he was innocent.”
“Cookie and I are praying for O.J. Simpson’s children … and his grandchildren following his passing. I know this is a difficult time,” Magic Johnson said on X.
“I feel that the system failed Nicole Brown Simpson and failed battered women everywhere,” attorney Gloria Allred, who once represented Nicole’s family, told ABC News. “I don’t mourn for O.J. Simpson. I do mourn for Nicole Brown Simpson and her family, and they should be remembered.”
Simpson was diagnosed with prostate cancer about a year ago and was undergoing chemotherapy treatment, according to Pro Football Hall of Fame President Jim Porter. He died in his Las Vegas, Nevada, home with his family at his side.
He is survived by four children: Arnelle and Jason from his first marriage and Sydney and Justin from his second marriage. He was predeceased son, Aaren, who drowned in a family swimming pool in 1979.
Sources for this report include Wikipedia, ABC News, Associated Press, and X.
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