Exclusive: David Oyelowo On His Directorial Debut ‘The Water Man’

Making its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in the Special Events lineup was actor David Oyelowo’s feature directorial debut, ‘The Water Man.’

Written by Emma Needell, Oyelowo also appears in the film along with Rosario Dawson, This Is Us star Lonnie Chavis, Amiah Miller (War for the Planet of the Apes ), Alfred Molina (Vice), and Maria Bello (History of Violence).

THE WATER MAN is a fantasy-adventure film about a young boy named Gunner (Lonnie Chavis) who sets out on a quest to save his ill mother (Rosario Dawson) by searching for a mythic figure who knows the secret to immortality. Gunner enlists the help of a mysterious local girl (Amiah Miller) who has her own terrifying tale of meeting this figure, known as the Water Man, face-to-face. Together they journey into the remote Wild Horse forest, but the deeper they venture, the stranger and more dangerous the forest becomes. Back home, Gunner’s father, Amos (David Oyelowo), who has grown distant from Gunner over the years, will stop at nothing to find his son -- and in the process discovers who his son really is.

For Oyelowo, having appeared in Selma, The Help, Red Tails, Middle of Nowhere, Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Nightingale, Queen of Katwe, A United Kingdom, and Don’t Let Go, the time is about right for him to step behind the camera and flex his creative skills.

In speaking with BlackFilmandTV.com, Oyelowo talks about his directorial debut, its challenges and his current project.

When did you decide you wanted to start directing and why this story?

David Oyelowo: Well, I have decided a little while ago, that it's something I wanted to do in my future at some point. Working with pictures that made it clear that you know you want it to be the right thing because of just how all consuming it is. And The Water Man was something I was initially interested in as a producer and then as an actor because I love the father, son story element. We actually had a director but we lost our director. But at that point, ShivHans Pictures had already come on board to finance the film. We had already cast Lonnie Cchavis in the lead and he had a very finite window because of his TV series This Is Us. When you have that many elements in place for a film, you go. And it was actually Emma Needell, the writer who turned to me and said, "David, I really think you're the one to direct this" because we had been in the process of developing the film for about four years at that point, and so I jumped in.

Having worked on a number of project, but to step behind the scenes, was it easy or daunting?

David Oyelowo: I wouldn't say it was daunting. I would say that the moment I decided to direct it was a moment of truth. The reason I say it wasn't daunting is because my process of learning what a director does and how well or how badly they do it was very much learnt over a 20 year career of doing over 40 films at this point. And so it was a slow burn learning process, but that moment you decide to jump off the cliff and hope that you land well, that's the moment that gave me pause. I realized I was passionate enough about the story. I'm always looking for opportunities to scare myself because I do think that those are the best moments of creativity. That's why I jumped in.

Is this going to be a thing where you can direct a lot of times as well as act or is it going to be every now and then?

David Oyelowo: It's probably going to be every now and then because I do love my day job as an actor. I don't know how quickly I would jump into directing something I was the out and out lead in because that's that's quite a heavy load to carry. But never say never. We've seen actors like Kenneth Branagh and Mel Gibson and Nate Parker do that incredibly well. Those guys were all inspirations for me stepping into this. But directing is definitely something I want to do more on because the perspective of the person behind the camera dictates what that thing is. I have some things I want to say with the work I do. The best place to do that from is from the director's chair.

Speaking of Nate, where are we with Sweet Thunder? Is that your next project?

David Oyelowo: We were about to shoot that in August of this of this year and then the pandemic hit. It's a big movie. So we decided to pause on that. I'm actually speaking to you from Vancouver where we are in prep. We start shooting next week on another film of Nate's called as Solitary. We pivoted to a film that is a bit more manageable considering all the constraints that the pandemic puts on our film production. We're doing that film instead and God willing, Sweet Thunder lies in our future.

What's solitary about?

David Oyelowo: Solitary is about a guy who is coming out of seven years of solitary confinement. He's trying to navigate the world in which he cannot fully discern what is real and what is imagined. Being in solitary confinement really does cause quite a bit of mental illness. It's an incredibly inhumane form of punitive punishment. It's a psychological thriller about what is real and what is perceived as real by this guy who has endured this torturous long term event in his life.

With The Water Man, is the hope to get it in theaters or on streaming platforms or VOD? We still don’t know where films are going to be shown.

David Oyelowo: Exactly. I think we're at a stage on at a time in history generally, but in terms of our industry where to have made a film that people might actually see, you are in a very rarefied circumstance. I don't want it to be in bits if people are not going to go to theaters. I am very happy for it to be streaming, if that's where the most amount of people will see it. You make this content for people to see and and that's my primary objective. Anyone who lovingly wraps their arms around it in terms of a distributor and get it to as many people as possible is the way I'd want to go.