#<- yes i did put his choose your own adventure hamlet in here. for Fun

[aq2003]

hamlet x ophelia mixed messages amv

[bbclesmis]

David Oyelowo on 'Les Miserables,' Making Directorial Debut With Oprah Winfrey

The Emmy- and Globe-nominated actor, who directs 'The Water Man' with Winfrey as co-producer, also discusses taking on the most iconic and tragic antagonist in literature and not wanting to be "the token person of color" on the PBS series.

David Oyelowo has always been a fan of the Les Misérables musical, but it wasn't until he picked up Andrew Davies' script that the star — who's been Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated for his work on HBO's Nightingale and in Ava DuVernay's Selma — fully appreciated the villainous Inspector Javert. "There was so much more depth and complexity to this character than I ever realized from any iteration I had seen," he says. Oyelowo, 43, spoke with THR about executive producing and starring on PBS' six-part Les Mis miniseries (which debuted April 14) and developing his directorial debut, The Water Man, a fantasy drama co-produced by Oprah Winfrey — "or Mum O, as I like to call her."

Javert is one of the most iconic and tragic antagonists in literature and theater. How did you key into his psychology?

One couldn't earn the way Javert comes to an end in such a dramatic, violent and self-inflicted way without a very clear runway and emotional, psychological and spiritual journey. The biggest clue to me was that he was born in prison to criminal parents, yet he is now a man who detests criminality to an obsessive degree. You go, "Well, it's fine to hate criminality, but to be so obsessed with Jean Valjean­ — what's going on there?" Victor Hugo actually based Jean Valjean and Javert on the same person, this gentleman he knew who had both sides within himself. To that extent, Javert transposed all the criminality he loathed in his own upbringing onto Valjean, and that justifies his obsessive pursuit of him. But when he recognizes that this man isn't just criminal, he is worthy of redemption, he is someone who somehow has been able to transcend his criminality; he realizes that this pursuit has been futile. The criminality that he loathes is still within himself, which is why he chooses to destroy himself.

Did you and Dominic West know each other before this?

We didn't know each other well. He's such a lovely guy and incredibly funny. I had to do as much as I could to stay away from him while we were shooting. For me, I need to inhabit and feel every tendril of the character, and I couldn't entertain the idea of being jokey-jokey with him and then go into the level of acrimony between us. There's such a cat-and-mouse element to Javert and Valjean's relationship that was so satisfying to play. As an actor, a lot of the time you are trying to find the subtext to a scene, to imbue it with interest. With this, it was absolutely inherent. These characters had so much history that was always present in every scene they had together. But we've become great friends ever since.

Was using the music from the stage adaptation ever a consideration?

It never was, no. We all discussed that if we're going to do this, there has to be a real reason why this should exist so soon after Tom Hooper's [2012] filmic musical. We wanted to make it a much dirtier, grittier, immediate, politically prescient version. Being a producer, I didn't want to be the token person of color within it. I was very clear that we need to have that be something organic and truthful to the time. We've done a terrible job of representing just how many people of color were inhabiting Europe at that time. And not just in subjugated roles. Anyone who's read Tom Reiss' The Black Count will know that Thomas Alexandre Dumas was a general in the French army in the late 1700s [one of the highest-ranking men of African descent ever in a European army]. So, it's not beyond the realm of possibility that Javert was indeed someone like me. You want people to see themselves onscreen.

I've read that you've specifically asked your reps to seek out roles where you might not be first in mind. For this miniseries, did your casting come first or did you initially come on as an executive producer? Did you feel like you had to fight for the role at all?

I signed on as an actor first. They approached me and I was actually the first person to be cast in it. But yes, what you mentioned is absolutely true. Early on in my career I felt the need to say to my representatives, “Put me out for roles that are not race specific.” Because the truth of the matter was, the more interesting roles were inherently going to white actors. I am just so elated to now be going into a phase of my career where I am being approached with those kind of roles. It's not something necessarily I'm going to seek out. So yeah, Les Mis is something I was approached with, and that is incredibly gratifying because a decade ago, 15 years ago, I just don't know if that would have been the case.

As an EP on the series, was there a time where you felt like you had to take off your actor hat and fix a problem? Or did you feel like it was generally smooth sailing throughout the shoot?

It was pretty much smooth sailing. Tom Shankland, our director, had such a handle on the piece. You couldn't ask him a single question that he didn't have an answer for both on the basis of the script and the book itself. I was so impressed by him. Our producer Chris Carey also was just a monster when it came to making everything work in a beautiful way. For me, my primary function was just keeping on it when it came to representation within the piece. I think that is when sometimes things slip within the cracks. We all go to the movies and watch TV in the hope of seeing ourselves represented. We all have bias, we all lean into things that are more akin to our own experience. And of course, I have a bias toward seeing people of color in something like this. So it was very helpful, I think, to have me around to say, "Guys, let's remember the nature of the piece we're doing. We need more extras of color here. Let's not forget what we're trying to do here." Some of the development of the script I was very much a part of, and then a lot of the distribution and the marketing and the release dates and all that kind of stuff. Postproduction is a big side of getting a six-hour piece to be its best self. I got my hands quite dirty with that process as well.

This spring, your slate is pretty packed in addition to Les Mis. You had Relive debut at Sundance, you're in production on Peter Rabbit 2, and you have Come Away and Chaos Walking in post. How are you doing?

It's a very, very good question. I literally was in Sydney doing Peter Rabbit. We then went to London last week, and I'm now here in New York. Then, I leave here to go into preproduction on my directorial debut, The Water Man, in about three days. I have an incredible wife who makes it all work. We actually run our production company together. We have four children and they are with me a lot of the time. We scheduled the shoot for The Water Man over the summer holidays so that they can be with me. I really, really love what I get to do, and I don't take it for granted at all. I'm just trying to have as much fun and tell as many great stories as I can, while I can. But my wife and I have a two-week rule. We're never apart for more than two weeks, and so that means a lot of flying, and a lot of crazy scheduling.

You must have a lot of frequent flyer miles.

I have an enormous amount. So if you ever have any trips that you're planning, please hit me up because I have plenty.

Why did you select The Water Man for your directorial debut?

I was looking for a film that was akin to the ones I loved growing up — E.T. or Close Encounters of the Third Kind or films like The NeverEnding Story, Labyrinth, The Goonies. They don't have to be $200 million extravaganzas, but they can have a fantasy element and be grounded in realism and truth with poignant themes. This script by Emma Needell was on the Black List. I fought hard and thankfully got it, and myself and Oprah Winfrey — or "Mum O," as I like to call her — came on as producers to develop it. Another director was going to direct it, but he fell out. My fellow producers turned to me and said, "Well, you've been working on this passionately for five years. Do you want to do it?" I took two weeks to really mull that over.

What was the deciding factor in those two weeks that made you say, "Yes, I will; I’m ready"?

Realizing that I was passionate enough about the story to dedicate as much time to making a film as is necessary. And the fact that the story is just so moving to me. It's about an 11-year-old boy who's on the hunt for a mythical figure who he believes can save his mother from an illness. I also love the fact that it is an adventure movie. Basically, this boy teams up with this girl and they go into a forest hunting for this mythical figure called “the Water Man.” So it has elements of Stand by Me and Pan's Labyrinth, both films I deeply love. I'm always looking for opportunities to scare myself, and this is the most dramatic example of that I have had in my career thus far. So I jumped in.

Was there ever a seed earlier on where directing first sprouted in your mind?

Very early on. It's something I've always wanted to do. I remember seeing Kenneth Branagh's Henry V and that being one of the earliest moments. I thought, “Whoa. That guy directed that and is in it. How on Earth is that possible?" And then he did it again with Hamlet. I think the seed just kept on being replanted of the idea of doing it one day. So when the opportunity presented itself, it had been long gestating.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/david-oyelowo-les-miserables-making-directorial-debut-oprah-1213657

[serpensthesia]

The first rule of the ever-evolving 11-question meme is that you must always post the rules! The second rule is you must answer the questions given by the person who tagged you. The third rule is you must then write 11 questions of your own and tag 11 people (or however many, you do you, bb) to answer them!

(If it is your first time at the ever-evolving 11-question meme, you do not have to fight though.)

I was tagged by @silveredglass and @devinesis, who are both amazing like whoa. Please go check them out right this instant, you will not regret it! (Very long) Answers below the cut! My questions at the very, very bottom... just keep scrolling, just keep scrolling...

Answers to @silveredglass's questions:

1. Have you ever had something happen to yourself (not as a baby) that you didn’t remember until someone else told you about it?

Oh my goodness, all the time? I could truly be a living, breathing version of that psychology experiment given how often people remind me of things I have done but have no memory of them. A good example is that I do not remember reading Hamlet in high school, but bestfran, who was in the same class as me, swears up and down that we did. And not only that we did, but that it was like... a thing. Like parts were given out. People got into it. It's possible that costumes were worn? And I had no memory of this until she started talking about it. I very seriously thought she was lying to me, that's how much I had forgotten this happened. It was only after she started talking about it and telling me that it definitely happened that I was like "oh shit, you are right... you are so right." (Or she has some weird thing about wanting to implant false memories about Hamlet, which I guess I would also be okay with.)

2. Best food combination that shouldn’t work but does that you have ‘invented’?

This is actually really tough. I have made some pretty odd cupcakes in my day, but the one that is most often requested is my pear, feta and hefeweizen cupcake, which I am told is a pretty strange combination? But I guess not that strange because people want them all the time?

3. Do you like live theatre? Art exhibits? If so tell me about something you’ve seen that made an impact.

Very much so! We have a free museum here that houses many of my most favorite surrealist paintings, but it is also associated with the Rothko chapel, which is one of the most peaceful places I think I have ever been? The picture does not do those monolithic paintings justice, either... they are easily 3 or 4 times my height and truly overpowering to see up close. They look just all black, but they are filled with so much movement. Rothko is certainly a difficult painter to capture in photography. I could (and have) stared at them, lost in the shades and hidden colors, for moments that seemed very long. It's just silent in a loud way. 10/10, do recommend.

4. Do you have an accessory or jewellery or makeup that you wear almost always?

I have a silver ring with a little cross on it that my mother gave me, I think right before I started college? I wear it on my left ring finger, but it is neither a ~*purity ring*~ (because I am not religious and also purity rings are creepy) nor is it meant to signal any sort of message... it's just the most comfortable finger. Fun story. Not long after HGD and I started dating, he had my ring in his mouth (I don't know?) and bit (yes, with his teeth) it out of shape. He didn't think it was real silver? I don't know what he was thinking. But I was so angry. We took it to the place where it is from and they were not sure they would be able to reshape it because it looked like HGD had fucking bitten a stress fracture into my ring?! But it was fine (HGD got so lucky). So now it has little tiny teeth indents, which is dumb but also kind of wonderful. HGD isn't allowed to touch the ring anymore, though.

5. What is your strongest olfactory memory?

Any time I smell Chrome (the terrible, cheap cologne that every teenage boy seems to own?), I am transported back to being 16 years old in the early evening heat of August, and a boy is handing me his Pink Floyd shirt that is many sizes too big and saying "I heard a rumor that you liked me?" and kissing me on the cheek.

6. What album that has been released in the past two years should I go buy?

Okay. If I had to pick just one album, and it doesn't even matter if you like rap, it would be DAMN. by Kendrick Lamar. It is undeniable how good it is. But I am bad at picking one, so I might also recommend World Eater by Blanck Mass, Humanz by Gorillaz, or Dirty Projectors by (you guessed it) Dirty Projectors!

7. When you were a kid did you have a favourite make believe game you’d play? Or dress up you’d wear?

When I was a little girl, my cousins and I all very much liked to play with my grandfather's wife's square dancing skirts. We would just twirl around in them for hours, pretending that we were all beautiful dancers!

8. Tell me something that made you feel proper chuffed with yourself. In a nice quietly contented way.

Oh, any time I corral my team into agreement, or really even any time I get them to go *a* direction, I feel very quietly content with myself! Or! And god, this is so dumb, but any time that I put a lot of things in my queue for this blog so that it doesn't seem like I'm dead for days on end!

9. IS MISSING. Is this one of those things where I am supposed to notice? I will take this chance to tell you all that you should go read Silv's first lines meme answer, then.

10. Have you ever had a scary or very odd animal encounter?

Well... this is more about an animal encounter that I didn't have, but when I was a kid, my family stayed the night in Yosemite National Park in a canvas tent (which was surprisingly nice... or 10-year-old me had lower standards than current me, maybe). When you park, you watch this TERRIFYING video of bears just RIPPING CARS APART if they smell food in your car so you have to throw away EVERYTHING that might attract bears. And I mean everything, even gum wrappers. So you can imagine what they would do if they smelled food inside your tent, right? I slept surprisingly well that night for being terrified that I might be mauled to death in my sleep by a hungry bear, though.

11. Share a link to a fic or fan art that you love?

Oh... oh, so tough. Wildfire by abbycadabra makes me feel things everytime I read it. And I really, really love atalienart's "Spell Series"!

Answers to @devinesis's questions:

1. What’s something in this world that you just don’t understand and wish you could?

I very sincerely wish that I could understand the conservative mindset of putting businesses or profits or churches before actual human lives. I mean I wish I could understand it in the way that they must feel it, because I jokingly say that Ted Cruz is obviously the Zodiac Killer in a Lizard Person's body (*cough* he is *cough*), but I can also (begrudingly) admit that he is maybe also a human bean (even if a v bad one)... and how does he, or any person that voted for him, or any person that votes along beside him in Congress... well, how do they justify their own seeming lack of humanity? It's a mystery to me.

2. What show or movie does everyone love and tell you to watch but you just hate no matter how many times you try?

I'm probably about to lose so many followers but THE HARRY POTTER MOVIES?!?! Like I disagree with nearly all of the casting, I will never forgive them for not making Harry's eyes fucking green, and even the movies that I watched... it felt like they glossed over all of the most magical parts? 

They are irredeemable trash in my opinion and even though we got some cool actors out of it, I have no interest in even trying to love them. AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON SIRIUS BLACK, OKAY.

3. The first book you ever really loved? (If it’s HP, cool, but you have to say something else, too. LOL)

Oh. Anything by Francesca lia Block... I devoured her books when I was younger. I wanted so desperately to be one of those manic pixie shangri-la fairy girls that she wrote about. Or To Kill A Mockingbird because... well, Atticus.

4. If you were going to be in a relationship (platonic or sexual) for the rest of your life with a character from the Harry Potter universe, who would you choose?

Sorry, Draco, but I'm going with Hermione Granger. Helpful for studying? Check. Sometimes problematic but woke af? Check (better than most other characters in the book). Will be down to sometimes do girly things? Check. Is good at keeses because most girls are? Check. Likes to know things? Check. Is a badass? Check. Knows muggle AND magical shit? Check. Is def a ride or die, and down for adventuring without being a baby (looking at you, Ron)? CHECK.

5. Your most hated book you were ever assigned to read in school?

Tess of the D'Ubervilles. *rolls eyes* She should have just killed everyone and rolled out of there with two middle fingers up in the air instead of complaining about everything for the whole book (I realize this is not a very nuanced look at this novel, but lord, did I hate this when I had to read it in school... we also had some nightmare-level assignments related to this book, which is probably part of the reason I hated it so much).

6. If you had a personal uniform like a cartoon character, what would it be?

All black everything (which is not far off from what I usually wear now), except, like a cartoon character, everything would fit perfectly and never fade and always look cool and I would also never have to actually put on eyeliner, I would just rock the perfect cat-eye all the time.

7. Where is your “happy place”?

Any place where I can get a (good) vanilla latte or listen to music very loud and just dance around like an idiot.

8. Favorite form of exercise?

I really enjoy yoga, but I certainly don't do it often enough. I also kind of like the monotony of elliptical machines?

9. If you had a crush when you were, like, 12–14—looking back, is it embarrassing, or do you nod at your younger self in approval?

Mostly I am embarrassed but I did crush hard for a few hours on a total stranger at a battle of the bands when I was probably 14. He had long black hair and weird tall shoes and was defintely wearing eyeliner and looked like the closest thing I might ever see to Davey Havok in person and I just wanted to talk to him because he was so pretty (but also clearly much older than me). I still approve of that one, 4-hour crush on a dreamy goth stranger. Other than that, 12-14 year old me definitely had trash taste.

10. What, for you, are the most hated and most enjoyable tasks of adulthood?

Most hated? Having to ever wake up early and be somewhere on time while knowing that if I'm late I have no one to blame but myself? Most enjoyable: Being able to decide when I want to do things, if at all (within reason).

11. What small-talk question do you most hate answering from strangers at a party?

In high school it was, "where do you want to go to college" because I did not know where I wanted to go to college, or even if I wanted to go to college. In college it was "what's your major?" as if there are not a million other things you could say to a perfect stranger that would be more interesting. In grad school it was "oh, so why did you want to study this"... we all have the same answer, guys. We aren't here for the money. We're all here because we want to help. Come on. Currently, it's "oh, what do you do?" because my job is sort of difficult to explain and I always get "the look" of like "oh, that sounds like it must be really sad" and I know it's not necessarily what I should be doing, but it's what I'm doing right now, damn it. Also because we could talk about literally anything else, why does it always have to be work?

Okay... so I'm just going to do 22 questions and you can pick your favorite 11 to answer (if you decide you want to do this).

1. What are some of your favorite song lyrics and why do you love them so much? 2. If you could live in a fictional reality from a novel (or show, or whatever), where would you live? (Hard mode: you can't choose Hogwarts, or anything from the HP universe... womp womp) 3. What will you FIGHT a person about (in the internet sense of the word)(or also in the literal sense of the word)? 4. What was your first fandom and how did you find yourself there? 5. Not a question but post a picture of whatever you want. 6. What is something not enough people understand and you want to explain to me right now? 7. What is your favorite thing that you have ever studied (doesn't have to be in school, or even studied formally)? 8. You are suddenly allowed to keep one real, wild animal as a pet and it's not going to kill you or hurt you, it's just going to be sweet and awesome... what animal do you choose? 9. Least favorite activity that you have grown to bedrudingly accept as necessary (and maybe even a little fun)? 10. Give past-you a cryptic message - no context, just the message: 11. Who is your problematic fave and why do you love them so much? 12. What is the last thing that someone radically changed your mind about? How did they do it? 13. You are trapped on a desert island. There is no escape. No one is coming to save you. You are going to die. What 3 things do you bring with you so that you can die happy? 14. What 3 dumb as hell things make you stupidly, infectiously happy? 15. What do you create? 16. You've gone down the YouTube k-hole and have been binge watching nonsense for the past 2 hours. Where did you start? 17. If you could have a magical tattoo a la moving tattoos in HP fanon, that would appear when you wanted it and disappear when you didn't, what would it be of? 18. What stereotype actually pretty accurately describes you? 19. You have a kid in your possession, that does not belong to you, that you get return at the end of the day. What do you teach that child that is going to make their parents hate you? 20. What is the last fic you read that you would recommend everyone read? 21. What do you love about yourself? 22. Send a message using only emojis. Let your readers guess what it means!

Okay, tagging (only if you want to!): @deadsdemona, @sprout2012, @fleetofshippyships, @oceaxereturns, @ourloveislegendrarry, @o0o-chibaken-o0o, @fizzingwhizweezes, @goldentruth813, @phd-mama, @acciotomriddle, @synonym-for-life (and @silveredglass and @devinesis, if you guys want to answer more questions, lol!) Or if I didn’t tag you and want to do it, consider yourself tagged!