It Was David Oyelowo’s Idea To Make His ‘Gringo’ Character A Nigerian Immigrant

At the beginning of the year, David Oyelowo‘s upcoming movie, Gringo, made our list of the six Nigerian-led Hollywood movies we were excited to see this year. Then the hilarious trailer dropped, and our expectations shot through the roof.

The Nash Edgerton-directed dark comedy, which is set to hit cinemas on March 9, follows Harold Soyinka (played by Oyelowo), a Nigerian immigrant who finds himself at the mercy of backstabbing colleagues, local drug lords and a black ops mercenary after travelling to Mexico.

While the trailer’s funniest scene involves Harold praying in Yoruba for God to save his life, it turns out the character was originally written as a white man named Harold Salinger. After reading and loving the script, Oyelowo was able to convince Edgerton to make the character a Nigerian immigrant.

Speaking on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Oyelowo explained:

“[Harold] is a guy who’s very trusting, maybe a bit hapless and I didn’t want to just play him as a nerdy guy. I saw my parents going through the obstacles of being immigrants in the UK.

There’s something wide-eyed and hopeful about that disposition, and I wanted that to be in that character. So, I made the suggestion and it just completely opened up the film.

So, he is not a stupid person, he’s just a very trusting person — someone who believes in the American dream. Unfortunately, a lot of people take advantage of that.” 

During the interview, he also responded to Donald Trump’s comments about African countries being “shitholes” — “that statement can only come from someone who’s never been there” — and praised Black Panther‘s ‘regal” portrayal of African culture.

You can watch the full interview below: