David Oyelowo

Not just for actors I will never meet, my own son.

And when I went to Lambda, I was the only Black student of 300 students at that drama school.

I went to see my son in his play, and I graduated 27 years ago, and I now go and talk at Lambda every now and again.

And a decent portion of the school is people of color from all walks of life, from all over the world.

There's been some really great work done.

And when I say to those students, when I say to my own son, I cannot believe what I'm seeing in relation to what my experience was.

They have no real connection to what I'm saying.

And I find myself thinking...

That's exactly what you want.

You want them to not be able to understand what it would feel like to be the only... I want you to take this level of diversity for granted.

And that is the driver for me with storytelling, you know, in terms of the characters I play.

I'm always, to a certain degree, taking roles...

as a kind of uh gift to my 12 year old self in terms of the things that i didn't see on screen cd poitier was my hero because he it was like looking at a martian in relation to what i saw on british television in relation to what was possible growing up on a council estate

in Islington and to be in a world now where that is not the experience of my kids, where they're going, oh, I have no one to aspire to in terms of someone who looks like me.

That is a big, big driver for why I do what I do.

Absolutely.

That's the gift.

Absolutely.

It's the gift.

And what's great about that story you tell, anyone...