Breaking Baz: ‘Lawmen: Bass Reeves’ Star David Oyelowo Back On Stage In London Playing ‘Coriolanus’, Says He Wants To Boost Filmmaking In Africa

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: David Oyelowo says he wants to use his star power to make more films in Africa and help boost the continent’s movie-making prowess.

But he assures “there’s not going to be a cultural colonialism” insisting that the move has got to “benefit people on the ground.” The actor met with Deadline during a break from rehearsals and previews of a new production of Shakespeare‘s blistering and bloodthirsty play Coriolanus at London’s National Theatre with the Lawmen: Bass Reeves actor playing the titular role of the noble, patrician, war hero Caius Martius Coriolanus, who discovers to his cost that heroics on the battlefield do not readily equip him for the vicious blood sports of politics in Ancient Rome.

The powerful play, directed by Olivier Award winner Lyndsey Turner, has its official opening night on September 24. Oyelowo, who was born in Oxford, England to Nigerian parents, is well aware of the arguments about Hollywood savior types going into African regions to take advantage of resources and giving little back in return. “It can’t just be us going in and mining it for all of that richness and extricating.

It’s got to be a benefit; to put something on the ground there in the same way that I can’t just bring all of my American crew to the U.K.