I know the title to this story makes it seem quite boring but the way David Oyelowo tells it is awesome. His dad is from Nigeria, David grew up in England so his dad has lived in England most of his adult life, and now he lives with David and his family in Los Angeles. David is married to fellow English actress Jessica Oyelowo and they have four children from around the ages of 7 to 17. (I actually can’t find a list of their children’s names and ages.) Anyway I haven’t seen David interviewed before, but I did see him play Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma and he was great in that. He’s a Shakespearean trained actor and he joked on The Daily Show that if you forget your lines you just say “forsooth” and fake it. He also told this awesome story about his dad and he did the Nigerian accent and everything! The YouTube video below is queued up to that part if you want to watch and here’s what he said:
You’ve been in the US and your father lives with you in LA or does [he just visit]?
He lives with us [laughs]. When we lived in the UK we lived in houses or apartments where we didn’t have a yard. LA has a lot of space. My dad has become obsessed with leaf blowing.Where is your dad from?
My dad’s from Oyo state in western Nigeria but lived most of his life in the UK. He wanted to spend more time with his grandchildren.Your Nigerian dad is obsessed with leaf blowers
If you knew Nigerians you’d know that was really weird. *Does accent* ‘What am I going to go and do the gardening for?’ He’s obsessed with infomercials. He’s got like four different leaf blowers. ‘I’ve got the automatic. This one has four gears!’‘OK, dad, as long as you’re happy.’ The problem is he never does the constant [blowing]. He goes. *makes motor noises in spurts* So for the hour he’s doing this [it’s annoying]. He’s so happy when fall comes. ‘Aha the leaves!’
Money and free time can affect people in such cute ways. Like if I was retired and didn’t have to work would I get a crazy hobby like this? This man absolutely loves leaf blowing and doing yard work and as David said it makes sense as they never had a yard in England (those community gardens they have in Europe are so cute though I love those!). However he also said Nigerian people typically would not care about blowing leaves or gardening. So if you had the time and moved somewhere different would you get a cool hobby that you’d never been exposed to before? Like would you start painting or doing crafts or taking up yoga? My parents moved to a retirement community and my mom is now having the neighbor ladies over to do chair yoga off YouTube on her lanai. (It’s a fancy name for a covered porch, they all call it that.) My parents also golf more and go to concerts and do all sorts of fun things you imagine you do when you retire. I love this story about David’s dad trying to get the best leaf blower and spending hours on the lawn.
David is promoting a non-musical Les Miserables miniseries that’s airing on PBS. He sold the hell out of it on The Daily Show and it has Olivia Colman in it! It also has Lily Collins and Dominic West, among many others. It’s airing at the same time as Game of Thrones but you can still watch it on demand. He’s also directing a film with Oprah co-producing (They starred together in The Butler as mother and son) and started his own production company. He said he did it because he didn’t see himself represented on film when he was growing up, that film is such a powerful cultural tool for creating empathy, and he wants “a different world for his children.” I’m going to pay more attention to him now he really impressed me.
Thank you to my friend Jacqb on Twitter for retweeting this clip!
David posts cute photos and videos of his kids and wife! I couldn’t find anything of his dad though.
This is giving me the feels!
photos credit: WENN and via Instagram
This cracked me up, I am also a sucker for infomercials and my husband always has to yell at me – “we don’t need that! ITS NOT GOING TO WORK LIKE THAT!!!!!” Well what does he know, lol.
I also like how you just assume no one is going to pass over GOT for Les Mis. “watch it on demand” lol
This made my entire morning! Soooo funny! OMG!
His dad sounds like a hoot and his sons are hot.
Yes they are!
I cackled. On the train. 😂 That was hysterical.
What a great story. I was cracking up.
Cool & funny story about his dad but very important not to generalize. Urban-raised Nigerian here and lived in the country all my life until very recently. Lots of people garden, growing their own fruits and veggies and growing up I did a lot of yard work – raking leaves and cutting grass by hand.
Right?? I stay in Oyo state (where his dad is from) and I have a small garden where I grow peppers and vegetables. I don’t have a leaf blower though. Lol
So jealous! I miss my mum’s cherry tomatoes, moringa, mint and basil (nchanwu). I live in a wintry climate now so no chance of outdoor gardening. I’m eager to embrace growing my own veggies indoors but so far, I’ve killed a couple of potted orchids.
This was such a cute and funny story! I wish we did have a pic of his dad. TBH, though, leaf blowing is very satisfying, like when you vacuum up a big mess. I have a hard time controlling where they go, but it is fun to do
This made me laugh, my dad loves infomercials too lol
so refreshing, thanks
What a cute story. He seems so sweet and his family is lovely. I might have to add him to my most kitten-filled IG feed.
As fo leaf blowing and retirement habits, one person’s obsession can turn into a next door neighbor’s annoyance. All my neighbor does between April and November, is work on his lawn. He mows it every other f%^&ing day with a gas powered mower. He sprays weeds with Round Up that he carries in a holster. He has a leaf blower that he’ll use for like five leaves that could be picked up by hand or maybe left on the ground for more than five minutes after falling. And smokes constantly, which goes straight into my family room windows if the wind is right. We tend to avoid our lovely yard because if we happen to catch his eye he will offer up a list of criticisms of all the ways we could be doing a better job on our yard and house maintenance.
Apologies for the rant. I’d love the Olyelowos as neighbors instead!
Esmon, hope you don’t have my sister’s experience. She and hubby moved into their lovely Atlanta neighborhood about 32 years ago. About 20 years ago she started griping about their next door neighbor who ran his leaf blower incessantly, often before 6 AM. Bitch, bitch, bitch. About a year ago she got a knock on the door. The people said they were friends of Mr. X and couldn’t reach him. They didn’t want to call police, so A went over, knocked on door, no answer. It was unlocked, so she looked inside. He’d been dead a week or so. 🤞🏻🤞🏻 You don’t experience that!
Oh yikes. I don’t think his health is great but he’s pretty young, lol. Retired early because of a medical issue. He also has a wife and a son who visits fairly regularly so hopefully they’d find him before I’d be called in to help!
Celebitchy-google David Oyelowo on NPR. He’s done interviews there and he’s lovely.
He is still pretty tight with Ava and they show up on each other’s IG every now and then. David is new to IG and Ava had to teach him how to do it and his 1st story was the two of them and was so cute and funny.
I also suggest following his brother Sam as well. The man is a very talented artist.
My husband lives for leaf blowing. He is constantly cranking up his loud ass blower and going to town in our yard. So weird!
I hope he wears ear protection. Not to be a downer here, but leaf blowers are way over 75 decibels and exposure to them can lead to permanent hearing loss. So, enjoy using the leaf blower (and lawn mower,etc), but please be aware that you need to protect your ears. Friendly rant over.
Haha! Do your parents live in the Villages? They all call it a lanai down there. It’s a screened porch.
I had my husband get me a leaf blower for mother’s day one year. It’s a ryobi. I love it. I don’t particularly like gardening…well I do, I just don’t have time, but when I do get to just sit outside, I like the porch and walk to be leaf free. Plus, I can just blow off the front porch and the back stair well. I love my leaf blower.
YES they live in the Villages! I’m sorry I didn’t see this sooner.
More stories about David please!!!! Love this! Made my day. He’s such a talented guy. Something about those leaf blowers though, must be a guy thing. My husband said he wants one of those backpack ones for Father’s Day. I told him only douchebags use those. Hopefully he changes his mind.
Aw, this is a nice story. I like a good leaf blower myself. We have an elderly family friend, aged 85. She lives in a retirement home and is on the old age pension. In the last few years, she’s taken quite a liking to our shopping network, and watches for several hours during the day and very often at night. As she’s of very high intellect with a steel-trap mind, she’s the last person I’d have expected to be interested in such programmes. Yet, she keeps the phone beside her (she’s never had internet), and buys all sorts of stuff. She’s bought a robot vacuum cleaner, pillows, mattress toppers, quilts, framed pictures, kitchen gadgets (she never cooks), , jewellery which she never wears… We do have a laugh about it, though, because there’s nothing like all-night shopping…!
That was adorable!
He seems so cute! I loved him in Gringo too. Also, didn’t they have a lanai on Golden Girls (yep, I’m old enough to remember that show when it first came out). Pretty sure that’s the only other place I’ve heard that term!
LOL!!! This is so true. If I had a buck for every mech-and-tech obsessed relative I have…:) My uncle bought his suburban house in good part so he could have a huge produce garden. He even had a working sink put out there.
Oh wow, David and his wife aren’t just living in the United States, they are actually citizens now! (Based on the “I voted” pics) That’s awesome. I had no idea that he was living in the US, never mind that they’ve been here that long.