Selma star David Oyelowo, who was snubbed for an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Martin Luther King Jr, feels “black people, have been celebrated more for when they are subservient”.
The actor and film’s director Ava DuVernay were ignored despite the critical acclaimed that the film recieved and Oyelowo pointed out the awards irony during an appearance at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
When asked about being “the subject of Oscar snub outrage”, Oyelowo said, “… this is truly my feeling; I felt this before the situation we’re talking about and I feel it now — generally speaking, we, as black people, have been celebrated more for when we are subservient, when we are not being leaders or kings or being at the center of our own narrative.”
The actor felt Denzel Washington should have won for playing ‘Malcolm X’ and Sidney Poitier should have won his Oscar for ‘In the Heat of the Night’ than for ‘Lilies of the Field’.
“So this bears out what I’m saying which is we’ve just got to come to the point whereby there isn’t a self-fulfilling prophecy — a notion of who black people are — that feeds into what we are celebrated as, not just in the Academy, but in life generally. Oyelowo said it is still hard to make films that talked about the achieve-ments of black people.(PTI)
