That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - David Oyelowo

Episode Date: November 1, 2021

In this episode Gaby chats to award-winning actor David Oyelowo. He talks about the outstanding movie 'Selma' where he played Dr Martin Luther King, 'The Waterman' on Netflix which he starred in and also directed, 'Spooks' the BBC TV show, his friendship with Oprah Winfrey and he talks for the first time about a football incident at Robbie Williams’s house in LA. He also tells Gaby a hilariously showbiz story of when Charlize Theron laughed so much that she wet herself in a restaurant! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to that Gabby Roslyn podcast. This week's guest is David O'Yellowo, an award-winning actor. We talk about the outstanding movie Selma, where he played Dr. Martin Luther King, The Waterman on Netflix, which not only did he star in, but he also directed. Spooks, the BBC TV show, his friendship with his second mom, as he calls her, Oprah Winfrey, and he talks for the first time about a football incident at Robbie Williams. William's house in L.A. He also tells me about how Charlize Stheron wet herself in a restaurant went out with him. Yes, it's true. It may be my favorite showbiz story ever. I hope you enjoy it.

Please, can I ask you a favor? Would you mind, please, following and subscribing, please, by pressing the follow or subscribe buttons, please. This is completely and utterly free, by the way. And then you can also rate and review on Apple Podcasts, which is the purple app on your iPhone or iPad. Simply scroll down to the bottom of all of the episodes and you'll see the stars where you can tap and rate and also please write a review. Thank you so much. How many places was that?

Probably too many. But please, thank you. David, I'm going to give this a go and if the pronunciation is wrong, you just, you tell me. I'll give you a lesson. Okay. Bawahdada. Oh, wow. thought you were going to try my name.

You're speaking. No, no, no, I could do it. Yes. Oh, wow. I did it, did it. It was all right. Was it all right? Yeah.

Yeah, it was good. It was good. The, the, Bawoni is how you say it. Bawani. Bawoni. There you go. Oh, my goodness. Very good.

Very, very good. But yes, you're asking me how I am and I'm very, very well. Oh, I'm so pleased. Because I thought I could, because my family, so your family from Nigeria, my family from Zimbabwe. So I'd like to teach you some Shona. So now I know. Right, here we go.

So Manguanani. Manguanani. That's good morning. Oh, wow. That's a keeper. Manguanani. Fantastic. Manguanani.

There we are. We can share. We've got that in common. There we are. Yay. So Prince David. Can I, is it true you've got eight names? Oh, gosh.

Yes. Yes. I have. I'm down to about four. on the remembrance front. Oh, don't be silly. It's true. You can't remember your own names.

Well, I don't. Let's face it, Gabi. They are not in everyday usage for me. Okay, well, let me tell you the ones I do now. It's David, oh, yeah, talk, bon. Animamuma, chukudi, or yeah, Robba. Oh, so that's like, that's five. That's five of them.

Oh, just do those again, because they're beautiful. Do it again. Okay, so David, obviously. Oh, yeah, talk, but. Chukudi and imamuma or Yorogba. So, but there are another three that slipped through the cracks over time.

Okay, I don't blame you. Now I've heard them, I don't blame you. But they're very beautiful. You know what? The language is, it sings, doesn't it? Yeah. You know, my dad was Yoruba, my mom was Ibo.

And they've both passed away now. Oh, I'm so sorry. Oh, no, that's okay. Yeah, my dad, my dad passed away last September. He got, he got, he got, he got colon cancer. Oh, my God, I'm so sorry. I know that my dad had it and, and thank God, survived, but I'm so sorry. I'm glad. I'm glad he survived. No, that blesses my heart to hear he survived because it's a, it's a devastating thing. He was 86, so, you know, he had a good inning, so to speak. But yeah, they were the most wonderful, wonderful parents and my my dad spoke Yoruba, my mom, Ibo and Yorba as well. And yeah, you know, it is the most beautiful, beautiful language. And I lived in Nigeria for seven years of my youth. And I'm just so

grateful to have been around that, to sort of, you know, imbibe that culture and to have that musicality of the language in me. When you were living there, did you think of yourself, this is a strange question, but were you an English speaker who learnt Nigerian or were you a Nigerian who was going home? Because you were in the UK until you were six, weren't you? Exactly, exactly right. To be honest, I was so young that, you know, a notion of my identity wasn't yet something I had sort of contemplated, really. But I was very much, you know, a London kid who had sort of found himself in Nigeria. And, you know, it was funny.

I never fully admitted that I spoke the language, and it actually served me very, very well when I went to boarding school because I pretended I was this kid who spoke with this kind of accent, even though I think it was a bit more Nigerian then. But I pretended I didn't speak Yoruba, so I would always be able to tell exactly

what everyone thought of me because they would go into Yoruba. when they thought I couldn't speak it. So I remember the day I was leaving that boarding school and just going around speaking Yoruba and all of them falling off their chair because they thought I couldn't speak it. I like that. I like that.

Do you dream, you dream, I presume, in English, do you or Yoruba ever? Yes, so when it comes to dreaming, I very much dream, I think, in English, unless there's a dream language I'm not really aware of. that I dream in. But when it comes to Yoruba, which is the language I understand. Like, if I watch a Nollywood movie or something like that, I can understand everything they're saying if it's Yoruba. But to go to speak it, you know, I'm not that good. But if I were to be in Lagos for, I think, like two months, it would all come rushing back, I think. Isn't it wonderful, though, to be able to have that, to have a few languages up your sleeves. I just think it's a really precious gift

that your parents gave you. Can your kid, you've got about 20,000 kids now, I think. Last time I met you, you had two or three, and now you've got, have you got four? I've got four. I've got four now. Gosh, that must be a while ago that we spoke. Yes, I have four of them.

They are 19, 16, 13, and nine. And they are wonderful, wonderful kids, three boys and a girl. Oh, and do they speak any Yoraba? Oh, gosh, no. No, no. I know, I know, it's such a shame. I mean, I can barely speak. I can understand it.

But, you know, we're planning a family trip to Nigeria. We were actually, you know, I was looking to take them. And then, of course, COVID stopped us all in our tracks. But yeah, that's something I very much want to do. But they are incredibly proud of their heritage, which is something I am very proud of. My eldest son, Asha, who's a recording artist, you know, one of his biggest influences, is Afro beat in his music. And, you know, he, that's just from being around my dad.

My dad lived with us for four years before he passed away. Just being around the culture, being around those influences. We try to very much remind them that they are both British, Nigerian, and now they're growing up American. And I do love the idea of both myself and my family being citizens of the world. I think, to be honest, in America. Yeah, yeah, because in America where we now live, it's very myopic, you know, it's people have a lot of the time no desire to leave the country or even entertain what's going on beyond the borders of the country. And I think growing up in the UK, growing up in Europe, but also in Africa, you know, there's something so rich about, like I say, being a citizen of the world and feeling engaged with so many different kinds of people, I think.

that's how you engender empathy. I love that. It's very funny. When I was doing all my research and everything, loads of people talk about how you can do loads of accents. So obviously that means, you know, the citizen of the world that you are, you can do all these accents. And I was watching a show where they threw all the different accents at you.

And they said, right, do Irish, do Scottish, do Canadian, do New York, do Texan. And you went for it. And you were really good. Thank you. I don't know how the Texans felt about it, but I certainly gave it a go. Yeah, I mean, look, between my training as an actor and then, you know, when I've made films in Uganda,

South Africa, Morocco, Nigeria, you know, Prague, all over America, obviously the UK, you know, there are so many places, some of which I'm blanking on right now, that I've been for periods of time. And as an actor, you are a student of humanity. You are trying to soak in what it is to be a human being on planet Earth, so that given the opportunity, you can consistently be able to hold a mirror up to humanity. And, you know, hopefully people relate to who you're playing. And, you know, the accent is a big part of that, the truth of that.

And between working with dialect coaches, learning dialect, when I was at Lambda, traveling the world, and just being interested and curious about human beings. I think that's what's helped me get relatively good at that. But there's a lovely story about you, not shaking off the accent or shaking off the character. Is this true when you were in Selma? And congratulations.

Wow, wow, wow. But you as Martin Luther King, that you stayed in character the whole time. I did. I just felt like, I just. felt like, yeah, I know. And you know what? When I was at drama school and early on in my career, you know, I would hear of actors doing that.

I would hear of method acting. And it just sounded pretentious to me, if I'm totally honest. But then I had the opportunity to work with Daniel Day Lewis in this film, Lincoln, in which he was playing Abraham Lincoln. And, you know, famously he's someone who does this. Being around him, it was so clear. clear to me what the benefits of doing that were. I just completely believed him. And not only did it affect his performance, but it affected the people around him's performance as well. It just meant

that the entire film while he was playing the protagonists had this atmosphere of authenticity. And I also had the same experience with Forrest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland. He also stayed in character the whole time. And it's not a comfortable thing. to do, certainly not for the actor and certainly not for the people around them. I mean, you know, Forrest Wittaker was playing a Ugandan dictator for goodness sake. It was incredibly difficult to be around him, if I'm totally honest. But, you know, you get afforded a role, the likes of playing Dr. King. You just simply have to go the extra mile. You can't be thinking, oh, it's embarrassing to do that or, you know, I'm just going to do this 80%. You're just going to do this 80%

when I've seen what happens when you go the full 100%. And so I just felt I owed it to the character. I owed it to the history and the civil rights movement and the film itself to go that extra mile. I can see that. But I'm thinking putting my Jessica hat on for a while, your wife. How on earth did Jessica cope with that? Oh, bless her heart.

Yeah, well, I think the story you're alluding. to is that we were we had just moved house just before I started playing dr. King and um we were doing some curtain shopping uh online and I was shooting in Atlanta she was here in L.A. And I was in character on the phone and I started yeah yeah yeah no I you know I could fully committed to it. And and at some point during the court she just went stop stop stop stop I cannot be shopping for curtains with Dr. King. I just, I'm going to draw the line there. The other thing, poor love that she had to endure is I had to put on, I think,

about two and a half, maybe three stone to play him. And so I developed these rather impressive man boobs as well as a really copious tummy. And yeah, she managed to just about convince me that she still found me sexy. but the speed with which she wanted me to lose weight afterwards suggests she was really suffering during the shooting. I mean, I have all these scenarios in my head, some of which are completely surreal of you as Martin Luther King and your wife just sitting down watching telly, having a bit of supper talking about the kids, how the kids are doing their homework. But you as Martin Luther King, I don't know how on earth she kept saying. I mean, bless her. I know, I know.

I'm so glad you're saying this because, you know, I get the accolades and the praise and all of that. But it is something that your family get dragged into. I don't do it for every role. I played a character who had multiple personality disorder in a film called Nightingale. And that was another one where I... Yes, an incredible film. Thank you. Thank you.

And I thought I sort of had to take the dive with that one as well. Sometimes I just keep the accent while I'm on set. And then I break it when I'm away from set. But, you know, what I found staying in character in that way, what it helps me do is it helps me never second guess the truth of the character I'm playing. And if you're playing Dr. King in Atlanta where he grew up. his iconic status is at its highest, you, I mean, talking the way we do in that environment

and then just snapping into Dr. King, I mean, it's just going to be so confusing for people, certainly for me as well. So it's the price you have to pay, but Jessica, I'm afraid, had to pay it as well. She must be a wonderful woman. But you were actually, not only, obviously, you married, and you talk about her so beautifully.

When I interviewed you last time, you remember you're talking about her so beautifully. But you've just signed a deal with your own production company, the two of you, and you're going to be producing stuff together, aren't you? Yeah, that's one of the big blessings of our lives, really. You know, the fact that we really enjoy working with each other as well as being married to each other as well. It was a bit of a risk. I'm not going to lie.

I was nervous about it early on when we discussed partnering in this way from a business point of view. But it's going incredibly well. We have this first look deal with Disney. I saw. Congratulations. Wow. Wow. Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah. But, you know, it's a brand that really is synonymous with some of what we want to do, which is to make content that the whole family can watch together. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

And because we have a big family. We have movie nights every Friday night. And, you know, the Marvel movies are great. Star Wars is great, but very quickly you run out of those and we just want more traffic in that kind of content. So that's why we partnered with Disney and then we're doing this overall deal with Varkham, CBS as well, to make television.

So yeah, we're having a great time doing all of that. So you also, I mean, obviously you're known for your phenomenal acting, but you're directing because you did The Waterman, was it last year, 2020? I don't even know what year we're in anymore because of COVID. I get so confused. So that was last year, wasn't it? Yes, well, it was at the Toronto Film Festival last year.

Got a wonderful, wonderful reaction. It was in movie theaters here earlier this year. And yes, COVID has really compromised so much. But, you know, plenty of people went to see it in the movie theater here. I'm glad to say plenty of people are now seeing it on Netflix. all over the planet. Tens of millions of them, no less, which is just so above and beyond what I anticipated

for my directorial debut. Yeah, oh my gosh, Gabby, I've made films that I really care about that barely anyone has seen, especially when they're a smaller movie. So you just never, ever know. And then you factor in the fact that we actually shot the Waterman before COVID, I'm doing post-production while the world feels like it's ending.

No one's leaving the house. And you're thinking, gosh, you know, what's going to happen with this movie we just made? No one's going to the movie theater. And, you know, we hadn't yet realized or fully embraced the fact that the audience's habits just changed during the pandemic. And streaming sort of, of course, went through the room. And that's where the Waterman has sort of found its most vibrant audience across the planet. And I just couldn't have anticipated that because, you know, in my mind, it was, you know, it's going to be in movie theatres and then, you know, see what happens next.

But, you know, the world changed and in ways that are very difficult for so many people. But when it comes to filmmaking, certainly at the budget level we made The Waterman, it's created some amazing opportunities. And you produced it, you directed it, you starred in it. It's that, that must be, oh, so you've got triple anxiety about it all. Suddenly letting your baby go. When you're performing in something, you're obviously there, and I hate fear. I think fear is a very dangerous thing. But as a performer, I know what it's like.

You put your show out there and suddenly you think, I hope people are going to like it because I love it. Then you've got another level because you've directed it. and then another level because you've produced it. So did you have those moments of hiding in a darkened room thinking, oh, my word, look what I've just done? Oh, it's a great question because I agree with you. I also, you know, I'm not a fan of fear at all. And I think that as human beings, generally speaking, at any given moment,

we are operating in one of two things, either fear or faith. And, you know, faith is the one that you always want to, you know, win over fear in a sense and absolutely I felt fear, especially at the idea of directing something I was also in, you know, that that's, because as we've discussed already, when I'm playing a role to whatever degree is necessary, I like to completely immerse myself. Oh, yes. Oh, how did you do that then? How did you say, right, you, I mean, how did you talk to yourself? Because you had to be a different person then. Exactly. Well, that's the thing. There are certain things you have to let go of. So, you know, I couldn't go around as my character, talking to the other actors, talking to my DP, talking to the costume design. You know, it's just, it's just a bridge too far. And so I think that, you know, that's partly why I felt I could do it because I was playing a supporting role. It wasn't, it wasn't a demanding role in the way that Dr. King or, you know, my role in Nightingale was.

but I did have to apply some techniques that helped me not go mad myself and my fellow actors and crew, which is that, you know, when I was in a scene with someone, I had to make sure I wasn't the one saying action and cut. That's just too weird. That's too much. You know, so I had my first assistant director doing that. And then Joel Edgerton, actually, a wonderful actor who also directs, gave me this great piece of advice. He said, when you're in a scene with an actor, never give them.

them direction immediately after cut has been called and you're still in the scene with them because then they'll start to feel like they're being analyzed during the scene as opposed to acted with during the scene. So whether I need to, yeah, so whether I needed to or not, I would leave the set, pretend sometimes to look at the monitor, even though I knew exactly what I needed them to do and come back. So it was almost like you had to take your acting hat off, go and put you're directing hat on, come back, and that sort of made it sort of, you know, there was this separation of church and state to a certain degree that helped. But in all honesty, I just loved the experience so much that even if it didn't go on to do everything I hoped, I knew that the

experience of directing this amazing group of actors and having this great, great crew, no one could take that away from me. But thankfully, you know, it's gone on to be so much more than I. I mean, it's literally one of the most successful things I put my hand to. And that's a wonderful thing to be able to say. Oh, congratulations. That is wonderful. Do you know, it's so obviously we all know you here in the UK.

I know people listen to this podcast around the world. But here in the UK, it was called Spooks. And I know it was it, was it, MI5 in the States. And so we know you from that. And then cut to you saying, you know, tens of millions of people are watching your movie that you produced, you directed and you starred in. You were produced by Oprah in Selma. There's photographs that I've seen of your lovely late daddy with Oprah, whose name he couldn't say. I love that story.

I know. But there you are with all of that happening. If you take yourself back to spooks and you looked at yourself now, you'd have the biggest smile just going, wow! Because you're very excited by life. I know you have tremendous faith and religion is very important to you, but you also have that very wide-eyed excitement by life, don't you? So would you be just pinching yourself? Would you not believe it then? Absolutely.

Absolutely. Well, it's funny. It's both at the same time. on the one hand, I would be pinching myself. And on the other hand, I would be in awe that things I had seen by way of dreams and ambition are actually being lived out. So what I mean by that is that I had those aspirations. And very early on in my career, even though there was much evidence of that kind of success, certainly not for black actors in the UK. You know, I had actors who I really admired who I looked up to,

but in all honesty, I didn't feel they were being given opportunities commensurate with their talent. I had to look to Hollywood for that. I had to look to Denzel Washington or Sydney Poitier or Will Smith to go, oh, someone who looks like me can achieve that. But, you know, growing up in Islington, living on a council estate, you know, managing to get a scholarship to go to Lambda, knowing that theatre was my first love, and that was somewhere I was happy to be. Even though I saw that for myself by way of ambition, where I actually was, and what I could actually see around me, completely was contrary to the idea that my ambition would be realized.

But there were a few things I held onto as non-negotiables, which is that I was never going to take on roles which I deemed to be stereotypical or caricature. I challenged my representation to put me up for roles that were written for white actors, because almost always, as the black characters were not being written as fully fleshed out as they should, they were very rarely written by other black people who understood the specifics of that experience and that culture. And so, you know, they were often written from an outsider's perspective, so you'd get these lined and you'd be like, I barely know how to make these work. But, you know, when Danny Hunter came along in Spooks, he was exactly that. He was a character not written as race-specific. So he had dimension. He had

an arc. And, you know, I fully embraced what was my first real substantial screen role. But before then, I had played Henry the Sixth at the RSC as well, which is another role that I was hopeful to get, determined to get, because it was the same narrative of, you know, not being stuck in what a black young actor was perceived to be the thing that they would do. And so in sort of, thankfully, having my ambition meet up with opportunity to do, to do that. those things, it meant that the goal I had was coming ever closer. And so when I left Spooks and did a few more movies, you know, that's when Jess and I took the gamble of going, you know what, I think if we keep working hard, if we keep our eyes on this prize, we may just get there,

which is why we took the incredibly scary step of moving to the States. And you're happy there, aren't you? Oh yeah, very, very, very, very. You know, we've lived here 14 years. now and it's you know the industry has been very good to us but also to our kids you know we had Asher and Caleb when we still live in the UK but they were five and two when we moved here and our third son and our daughter are born and raised here and they're growing up as Americans and you know LA is a very very lovely place to live it's a wonderful quality of life I love coming back to the UK but I do I do love living here So are you, how are you, do you think of yourself as American now first?

It's a good question. I think of myself as British, Nigerian and American. So we're back to the global citizen. Yes. And I embrace that because the UK or England is my country of birth. And it has given me so many opportunities. I don't think I would be an actor. I don't think I would have been introduced to the theatre.

I don't think I would have been introduced to that culture, which I also love. So, you know, I'm incredibly grateful for that citizenship. I am culturally and my heart is very much rooted in Nigeria because I benefited so much from living in a country for six years where I wasn't a minority. So it shifted my mindset around the things that could be afforded. to me because I grew up through formative years in a country where every opportunity on offer was mine for the taking. And that was something I held on to even when I moved back to the UK and now living in the States, where that is definitely not the case for a black person. But, you know, the disposition with which you approach your life, I think, you know,

manifest in the things you can go on to achieve. And America has been amazing to me from a career point of view. I would never have got to play Dr. King. I don't think, you know, living in the in the UK and not sort of completely immersing myself in African-American culture. And that's been an immense part of my life. And there are people here who I consider family to me, you know, who I would never have met. It sounds odd, but, you know, Oprah is like a mother to me. She's someone who has been, she's, yeah, yeah, well, you know, she is, you know, she's someone who's really taken me under her wing and and you know it's funny what I said earlier about having having a certain dreams and ambitions that you know where I was just it felt so out of reach that was her experience

as well you know growing up in the in the southern states of America and and you know being deemed too black too fat to you know and these these are her words to me of how, you know, of what would prevent her from achieving what she had by way of ambition. And, you know, when we played mother and son in The Butler, there was just so much commonality. Obviously, you know, she's through the stratosphere, but commonality in our outlook and trajectory. And I think she recognising me so much she saw in herself and has sort of really just been an incredible part of my life. that wouldn't have happened if I weren't now living in America. I'm going to embarrass you, but everybody always said,

and I've been doing this for 35 years, and everybody has always said to me, who's the one person you would like to interview? And I've always said Oprah. And so you're talking about Oprah, I'm going, wow, wow, because she's one of those people. She's incredible. Anyways, do send her my love, she doesn't know who I am from Adam,

but there we go. But also your other friend and my friend, and my word, the stories that you and, and I'm going to pronounce her name incorrectly, and I apologize, but I hope I've got it right. Charlize Theron, yes. Oh, Charlize Theron, yes. There we go, it's Theron.

Everyone always says Theron. Okay, Charlize Theron. She's Theron like Heron. Okay, I'll try again. So you and your friend, Charlize Theron. Yeah. Is this true that you made her actually pee her pants? It is true.

Right. Tell me the story. Share now. I know. Well, we did this film called Gringo in Mexico and we were at a restaurant. And, you know, I'm not going to tell you the whole story because it'll burn. Yeah, I want the whole story. I want the whole thing. I don't want you peeing on your chair, Gabby. I went to the Lou before. I put it. I want the story. Bring on the story. I don't want to do that to you.

I don't want to do. Honestly, it is incredibly long. It took a whole dinner. But. Oh, my God. Okay. It was the short version. I will tell you.

Well, it was around, it was around the catastrophic pronunciation of my name at some event. And it was the buildup to it. And it was just, you know, one of the most humiliating experiences of my life. But even worse for the announcer who got it so very wrong. But the weirdest thing. was, you know, we were all around this table. Everyone is laughing. And then, you know, Charlize had just completely lost it.

You know, that point where you just, you transfer into hysteria. And she was laughing and laughing and laughing. And then suddenly stopped, ran out of, ran away from the table. And I was sat next to her and I looked at her chair and it was wet. No! No! No! She properly peed, not even just a little bit.

No, no, no, no, no. So I thought, I thought, well, I know that's not her water's breaking, because she's definitely not broken. So what the heck? And so, yes, yes. So that is now my claim to fame. I literally made someone laugh till they peed their pants. Oh, my God.

Do you know what? I use that expression, because we always ask everybody in this podcast, What makes you properly laugh? I now know that when I interview Charlies, that I know what to ask her and she'll be able to tell us. And that's the thing. And you know what I love about her?

She will not one iota of her will be embarrassed about it. I would be mortified. She is like the most devil-make-air human being, I know. Isn't that fantastic? I love people like that. Okay, so what makes you properly belly laugh and hopefully not wet the chair, but why not? Oh, dear. Well, you know what? I'm a bit ashamed of it. What makes me laugh the most on the planet is people falling over.

Me too. Oh, good. Oh, good. Oh, good. You me and Robbie Williams. So Robbie Williams, when he's out in L.A., go see Robbie and say, oh, I heard you talking on Gabby's podcast. Because Rob talks about it all the time. We love it if somebody falls over into a hole, walks into a tree. Tell me your favorites. Go on. Go. Oh, my gosh. I mean, again, it's one of those you have. had to be there kind of things. But like I used to, I love watching those like, um, what, what do they call? The candid camera type things where people are falling over and bashing their nuts against fences and things like that. I just, I just, I just, I just fall out. And, uh, my kids, literally if I'm, if I'm seeming stern or upset in any way, they just play me that kind of video. And it's, it works every single time. But you know what? I've never actually told this story. Speaking of Robbie Williams, so earlier on when I first moved to LA, my wife and I

had lunch at a restaurant in Beverly Hills and who do we walk out onto the pavement to bump into, but Robbie Williams. And, you know, my wife had been a huge take, take that fan back in the day, so anyway, we get talking. And Robbie says, oh, yeah, you know, every Wednesday I have folks come over to my house to play football. So I was like, oh, great. You know, I, you know, I, you You know, we're fairly new to L.A. I love playing football. I haven't found a team to play for. So, you know, at that time, I don't know if Robbie still lives there,

but he literally has a football pitch. Have you been? Have you seen the football pitch? I've known him since he was about 15. Oh, wow. Football pitch was his pride and joy in L.A. Oh, yes. Oh, yeah, yeah.

So I would go once a week to play football at Robby's house. And I, I, one day, I got so badly injured. I rolled my ankle. I tore all the ligaments, chipped the cartilage, and I ended up having to have two operations on my ankle from that injury. So, you know, serves me right that now I find out, you know, I fell over at Robbie Williams' house and had to have two operations for it. So, you know, I really should think twice about laughing at people falling over. Oh, no, I'm sorry that you hurt yourself, but probably if we'd all been watching and if you'd watched yourself, you would have laughed, even though, you know. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, that's the hypocrisy of it.

Like, if I fall over, it is the least funny thing on the planet. No. Oh, I know. Look, I'm not, I'm not proud of it. It's just the truth, you know. You've let me down. I know. I know. So you laugh at yourself. You laugh at yourself and fall over? Yeah. Yeah. You're a better human than me. That's what this is. You're just, you're just a nicer person than me. No, I'm really, really not. I'm not. I just, I'm one of those people that I could giggle at anything. And the worst thing is if my kids, I remember when my baby girl, my first baby girl was about two and she fell down the stairs. And she was fine because at the bottom she went, Mommy, I fell down the stairs. I knew she was fine. And then I

couldn't stop laughing. And so my girls have been brought up laughing when people fall over and my husband hates it. He hates it. He's like you. You've transferred it to your kids. That's so funny. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good. It's the way to go. Do you know what you are? It's so lovely to speak to you again. And before we go, actually, I just have to ask you about playing Javert in Le Mitz on the BBC. Now, I don't know if you ever got it, but I sent you a message. because weirdly when we met, we swapped numbers. And I sent you a message. And no, but I don't think it was you because I got a reply saying.

Oh, no. Say it was you? Was it you? Saying, I don't know why you. I'm really embarrassed. I'm really embarrassed. No, because it might have been you. Oh, God, now I'm laughing.

No, no. Tell me, I'm almost certain if you had sent me a message. message post you have it, I would remember. I did not get the message. So this is coming from someone else, I think. Okay. What did they say? What did they say? So I sent a message saying, you're such a lovely person, but you're so evil. I love it and I love you. Loads of love Le Miz rocks. It was something like that. And I got this reply back saying, I don't, I don't think I remember who this is. So that's why I was really embarrassed. So I don't think I I don't think I remember who this is, but what have I done that's so hateful?

And I thought, oh, my God. Yeah, that was definitely not me because if you had referenced, Les Mis, I would know exactly what you were talking about. No, no, no, no. Oh, gosh, you've got the wrong number. Okay, I'm going to send you the right number, you know, because we can't have that person in your contacts. No, no, no, I would have been over the moon to get that from you. Oh, that's so funny. I was embarrassed to ask.

Thank you. Thank you for the message. I've embarrassed myself. It made me go sweaty because when I asked you to come on the podcast, I thought, well, he might say no because he wasn't pleased with me thinking. I know. I was thinking she thinks I'm a bad person for absolutely no reason. I used to like her. I thought she was a different person.

She's changed. Oh, David, what a joy to speak to you again and love to Jessica. And the next role you do, for on Jessica's behalf, if she's choosing sofas or curtains or anything, you just have to slip out of that character and just be Prince David. Yes, I'll do that. I'll take myself less seriously. I'll be merciful to my wife and we will discuss curtains as myself.

I promise. Bless you. And actually, me calling you Prince, you really are a Prince. So I'm not being, I'm not being rude there either. No, you're not being weird again, Gabby. I'm not going to get up and go, why were you calling me Prince? What is wrong with you? No, no, no.

I actually am one of those. Exactly. David, Prince David, O.B.E. See, there we go. I've got it all. And I can say your surname as well, a yellow one. I find it very extraordinary how people get really hung up about it. And obviously the story you were telling Charlize was about.

was about people pronouncing your name. And if we may, can we end on the way that your father, what your late father called Oprah? Because I think that is a delight that story. Oh, well, it's so, again, hypocritical, because he couldn't bear it when people would mispronounce our name. And he wouldn't even say, you know, I anglicise it and say, oh, yellowo. But he would say in the Yoruba, which is Oiyilo, is how you say,

Oillowa, like that. Yellow-o. Yeah, you go. But, you know, he would then, you know, I would say, Daddy, I've just got this role in Lincoln and Stephen Spielberg is directing it. Who is Stephen Spielbugger? I was like, it is, there is, I did not say Steven Spielberger. It is very clearly. And then I was like, oh, yeah, I'm doing this film called Jack Richard.

Tom Cruise is in it. Ah, my son is doing a film with Tom Cruise. It's like, it is very clearly Cruz, not crew. And then, you know, when I was doing the butler, you know, who calls Oprah Winfrey? You do your film with Opera? Oh, opera Winnie Fré. I mean, it's just like, oh gosh, but that was my dad. I love that.

I love that. What a way to end this. David, thank you. What a joy to speak to you again and take good care, my sweet. Thank you. You too speak to you soon. Thank you so much for listening. Coming up next week is the brilliant.

actor who everyone loves and I adore him. Mark Strong. That Gabby Roslyn podcast is proudly produced by Cameo Productions. Music by Beth McCari. Could you please tap the follow or subscribe button and thanks so much for your amazing reviews. We honestly read every single one and they mean the world to us. Thank you so much.