Lee Daniels Checks Reporter For Her Criticism Of “The Butler” - Page 2
Liev: I always care, that’s why I’m an actor. But I think part of the task was, in those particular roles was to be present as those historical figures–and this is what I was talking about perspective and context–where they may not be how you or history remembers them. They are seen through the eyes of the butler and his family. And that, that for me, I agree with you, watching the film, it’s a huge disconnect from what I remember about Lyndon Johnson who was one of the most prolific presidents of our time in terms of passing legislation. I mean, God, we could take a page from his book right now. But that wasn’t the story and it was important as actors that we contextualize our performance, in everything that we were doing, around this very tough nut of a perspective. Which made the film unique. So I appreciate your perspective but I think what we were trying to do was something a little more difficult.
Oprah: Because the reason he was on the toilet because that is what the butler was seeing.
David Oyelowo: I’m sorry, I really want to say one more thing in relation to that. We are dealing in the world of specificity. If you look at history from a distance, you can make all sorts of decisions. But we are dealing with a family, a very specific family. When Louis turns up to that house, to sit around that table, with his hat on, if you want to talk about what would happen in an African American home. He chooses to keep his hat on. He turns up in a mesh, leather shirt with his nipples showing. That is a statement he wants to make to his specific father, because of their specific relationship. So to view a film like this–What we’re trying to do is what films, and films in which black people are featured so often don’t, which is from a white perspective, and it is black people seen in a generalized way, we are doing something different here. We are talking about a specific family. And that’s a choice I make in relation to my mother and my father by way of defiance So to have that broad view, I think is– you have drunk the Kool-Aid, you have been indoctrinated into a way of looking at black people, that we’re trying to defy, which is to be specific.
