As the country celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 95th birthday yesterday, you probably saw the 2014 film “Selma” airing on one or more channels. Star David Oyelowo recently reflected on the turmoil surrounding the movie’s release, revealing that it was one of the project’s famous producers who gave him advice on handling all the controversy it attracted.
When “Selma” was released, there were some Lyndon B. Johnson historians/experts who felt that the film didn’t do enough to portray the former president’s support for Dr. King and the Civil Rights movement. Because in a film about Black people fighting for voting rights, the hero still needs to be the white guy?
We don’t know who needs to hear this, but the genre is actually called historical fiction. Filmmakers start with a real story, stay as accurate as possible and take dramatic license to make it entertaining. It’s why multiple real people are sometimes combined into one or two characters in film, and why the film may jump through different periods or moments. If you want 100 percent accuracy, watch a 10-hour Ken Burns documentary.
Plus, historical Black films aren’t afforded the space to be eye-opening and entertaining. With “Titanic,” “Apollo 13” and “Oppenheimer,” it’s all about scope and history, but with “Selma” and “The Woman King,” the narrative becomes “was that how it really went down” and “where are the white allies?”
As headlines began to swirl around the movie, Oyelowo was disappointed that all the drama was distracting from its important story. While speaking at the NATPE Global conference on Tuesday, the “Lawmen: Bass Reeves” actor revealed that actor Brad Pitt—a producer on the film—explained that he went through something similar with “Fight Club,” so the star shouldn’t let the controversy, box office or lack of awards recognition dim his view of the project.
“‘Don’t worry about any of that. You don’t know what your film is until 10 years after it’s been made,’” Oyelowo said. “And I remember him saying that and me thinking, ‘Yeah, you’re Brad Pitt. You can say that. I don’t know about that.’ But he used the example of one of my favorite films of all time, which is ‘Fight Club.’”
Like the rest of us, he sees scenes from the movie pop up online every year on Dr. King’s birthday, but because “It was a real full-immersion thing,” he’s never re-watched the entire movie.
During a conversation with The Root about his fantastic, engrossing Paramount+ series “Lawmen: Bass Reeves,” Oyelowo expressed how honored he is at the impact of “Selma” and what it means to the Black community.
“It’s extraordinary to me how many people now have ‘Selma’ as their frame of reference for who Dr. King was and the significance of his work and the things he achieved,” Oyelowo told The Root. “It’s become the jumping point for a lot of people. That’s something I will take to my grave.”
No one is suggesting you get your history from Hollywood. However, in a world where some lawmakers and so-called “activists” want to literally rewrite history and pretend that slavery, Jim Crow, segregation and any other form of racism didn’t happen, these stories have to be told somewhere, and right now Hollywood is the best option. And no matter what headlines say, we know the impact it has when projects like “Selma,” “Malcolm X,” “42” and “Glory” hit the big screen.