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David Oyelowo’s pedigree of being a classically trained stage actor has largely translated into his career in film with weighty roles in Selma, The Butler, Nightingale, and so forth. So when the opportunity to make his directorial debut with the kid-centric fantasy The Water Man came about, his fear was double-fold: stepping behind the camera and going left of what people have come to expect from him as an actor.
“I tend to gravitate towards roles and projects that are terrifying to me,” Oyelowo says in an upcoming episode of Fast Company’s podcast Creative Conversation. “This is a story that I knew, and it’s been confirmed, that people will be like, ‘But you do those important movies? You do those historical movies. Why have you gone off and done this family-adventure movie?’”
Directed by and starring Oyelowo, The Water Man follows Gunner (Lonnie Chavis), an 11-year-old boy who embarks on a journey to find the Water Man, a mythical figure said to possess the ability to heal. Even though the Water Man is believed to be nothing more than an urban legend, Gunner is desperate enough to seek him out with the aid of his friend Jo (Amiah Miller) to cure his mom (Rosario Dawson), who’s dying of cancer. But when Gunner and Jo get in over their heads, Amos (Oyelowo), Gunner’s dad—with whom he has a strained relationship—embarks on his own mission to save them.
“Of course I was incredibly nervous about going into this task,” Oyelowo says. “I was talking to Ava DuVernay about this, and she said, ‘David, the reality is with the career you’ve had, you’ve been on far more film sets and had far more film set experience than most world-class, prolific directors.’ And she’s right.”
Oyelowo’s acting career also served as his film school. And when he leaned on his Rolodex of directors he’s worked with for advice, the prevailing sentiment was, “Hire people who are far more experienced than you at what they do,” Oyelowo says. “Be very clear about your vision and then let them do their thing.”
As for his vision, Oyelowo saw The Water Man, written by newcomer Emma Needell, as an opportunity to tap into the ’80s fantasy adventures that shaped him as a kid, while also dialing into themes that are central to who he is as a husband and father.
“I’ve had to go and show [my kids] The NeverEnding Story, E.T., Stand by Me, Gremlins, The Goonies, but there are fewer of [those movies] to show them these days,” Oyelowo says. “What I loved about them was the confluence of reality and fantasy, which is so baked into what it is to be a kid. The fantasy element is partly what gets eroded when you get older. But that imaginative side of ourselves is often what helps us to cope with the toughest sides of life.”
Having that connection to a project was Oyelowo’s most substantial takeaway from his first foray into directing with his 2009 short film, Big Guy.
“What it really taught me was, yes [directing] was something I wanted to do but my goodness, it needs to be a story you’re passionate about, because you spend a lot of time with the film,” Oyelowo says. “So if you’re going to say something with film, you better say something.”
So what did he want to say with The Water Man?
“I think people who know me, and thankfully this is something that people have said, my biggest preoccupation—the thing I value the most in my life, the thing I try to put out into the world the most I can—is love,” Oyelowo says. “I tried to direct it from that point of view. I tried to empower people to do great work from that point of view. It was one of the themes of the film that was top of mind throughout the course of the film: How far are you prepared to go for the ones you love?”
Adding to that are the personal touches Oyelowo imbued the film with, like changing the character of Jo, who was originally scripted as a boy, so his daughter could see an adventurous girl like herself on-screen. Or tapping Nigerian artist Ric Hasani for two tracks in the film, as well as incorporating Afrocentric touches into the wardrobe.
“There are so many things in this film that are what I believe in, what I want to see in the world, whether it’s representation, whether it’s my culture, whether it’s the films I loved as a kid but I never saw myself represented in,” Oyelowo says. “I now get to have a little drop in the ocean of those movies in terms of The Water Man. What filmmakers should do is bring themselves, all of themselves, to the project and speak from that truth.”
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May marks the beginning of Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. May was chosen to commemorate when the first Japanese immigrants arrived in the U.S. in May 1978. The month is also the anniversary marking the finish of the transcontinental railroad, which was completed mainly by Chinese immigrants in May 1869.
To celebrate this month, Fast Company spoke with Emily Chang and Peter Pham, two Asian-American business leaders, to share their experiences. Chang is CEO of China at McCann World Group; Pham is a founder of Science, an incubator for startups. During an interview for the “A Work in Progress” video series the pair discuss their struggles in both their work and personal lives, along with the unique tensions Asian-Americans face throughout their lives and in light of recent hate crimes.
WATCH: Asian business leaders on how we can all combat AAPI hate
Chang, who works mainly in China but spent time developing her career in the U.S., says violence towards Asian people in recent weeks and since the beginning of the pandemic is frightening and stirs up emotions of disgust: “I’m offended. I think that’s the word that comes to mind. Everything offends my spirit, the things that we’re seeing.”
She also recounts times where she encountered racial stereotyping and hate from others, including recently when she was harassed on the street in Seattle while walking with her daughter. Chang used the moment to demonstrate there can be opportunities to set a good example and perhaps educate others by acting courageously and with generosity. “My first reaction is to protect my kid, is to put her on the other side of the street and just keep walking. But what is that teaching her? How are we being intentional in this moment to extract the maximum value for everybody involved?”
In the exchange, the harasser walked on but the opportunity for Chang to shape the moment for her daughter, who grew up predominantly in Asia, was worthwhile. “It could have ended a number of different ways, so sometimes you have to be a little brave and say, ‘I’m going to go see where this takes me.’ But I do feel like it left an impression with my kid. And maybe hopefully, it left a little bit of an impression with [the harasser].”
Chang continues that part of creating a less hostile environment and instead fostering more understanding starts with “creating different narratives, different visuals.” In terms of the workplace, Chang sees an opportunity to opt for more understanding than blame and aggression: “I think there’s an opportunity [in workplaces] to gently correct. We can help people save face because…we’re going to be working with them.”
Sharing his perspective, Pham, who works closely in the technology (he was part of the team who first launched Photobucket in 2005) and fundraising spaces, shares that he grew up with the expectation that all Asians “have to be” doctors. This cultural assumption shaped his desire to see more diverse role models: “In careers, whether you’re…doctors or tech executives or investors, seeing people like you as a child and then growing up, it’s inspiring.”
Pham says to see role models, who share your experiences and look like you, is not just important but necessary to help other Asian-Americans reach success. “You are the average of your friends. If your friends all look like you, and all your friends do one thing, that’s what you become. I think we’re all ingrained and used to that.” For Pham, the opportunity to bring diversity to the VC industry was a personal driver to achieve more, not scare him away from opportunity. “It’s motivating to show that we can do this too. And seeing others out there successful.”
And despite the fact that Pew research shows that Asian-Americans are the fastest-growing racial or ethnic minority group in the U.S., there is still a shortage of Asian CEOs, says Pham. “It’s not an extensive list, so I’m always looking and rooting for seeing some of those successes.”
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As Season 2 begins, two friends and colleagues answer “uncomfortable” questions about race at work.
