David Oyelowo Turns Down ‘About 80 Percent’ Of Roles To Avoid Perpetuating Black Stereotypes

David Oyelowo is careful about choosing his roles. “I live my life from the perspective of I must be part of the solution and not the problem,” he told Access Hollywood’s Scott Evans. “I think one of the privileges I don’t have is to just do any role I want, because I know that certain roles perpetuate stereotypes and perpetuate mindsets people have about Black people that is not helpful to all of what we’re talking about … I turn down about 80 percent of what comes my way for that reason, because I understand the power storytelling and images has on culture.”