David
Oyelowo has certainly been on a roll over the past few years, with this crowning
achievement to date being his stellar turn as Martin Luther King Jr, in Ava DuVernay’s
“Selma”.

So, naturally, one would wonder how any actor could top playing that role? How about playing
the part again – but this time, for the biggest director in the business?

Well, according
to Oyelowo in a recent interview in Esquire (HERE) it might possibly happen, given that, as he states, Steven Spielberg recently approached him about playing the role of MLK
again, for his long in development project about the life of Dr. King.

Oyelowo said
that he met Spielberg at an AFI awards event recently, and that the director said to him: "My goodness, David, that’s one of the best things I have ever seen.
You really inspired me to take another look at my Dr. King film…You would
reprise the role, right? You would do it again?"

Oyelowo’s immediate response was, “my stomach all but fell out of my body. I was just like, ‘Oh,
my lord.’"

And on further reflection, he added that: “That was quite a mountain to climb. Not only did the idea
of being asked to do it again give me pause, but here he is, Steven Spielberg
of all people, asking if I’d entertain doing it again. I don’t know. I really
don’t know. I’ve already been asked by a project that will remain nameless. To
be honest, right now, today I couldn’t think of anything worse. Just the weight
gain alone is a reason for me to stay away from it! But I feel like we did so
much of what we set out to do with that film. It’s time to let that film do its thing
for a while, before I go entertaining anything like that."

One thing to keep in mind is that Spielberg actually still owns the life rights
to Martin Luther King Jr., which means that he would be able to use his actual
speeches in the film. That would be quite a different situation for DuVernay
who, as a result, had to write new speeches for MLK for "Selma" in his style and
manner; so much so that many people thought that they were actual real speeches
given by Dr. King at Selma.

But would
you be interested in seeing Oyelowo playing King again, or is once enough?