David Oyelowo, the British-Nigerian actor who portrayed Martin Luther King Jr. in the 2014 movie “Selma,” says he had to explain to his three sons why the rhetoric President Trump used on the campaign trail last year is not appropriate.
“After Donald Trump won the election, I found myself having to have a conversation with my three sons, which is very unexpected,” Oyelowo told Larry King Live on ORA TV’s online streaming site. “I tried to bring up my sons to respect women, to be respectful generally, but I had to have a conversation with them about what is permissible – what should be permissible in society and in light of certain things he was on record having said about women.”
Oyelowo said he wanted his children to understand they should not expect to say “fairly reprehensible things” and then be “rewarded with the highest office in the land.”
“That makes it tricky as a father of sons to say ‘OK, this is unacceptable behavior and the rules have changed around what is deemed civil in general society,'” Oyelowo added. “But for me and my household, we’re going to be different. And so you know that – that was sort of a defining moment as to the era we’re going into politically.”
The Los Angeles-based actor and producer also said his wish for the U.S. is for Trump to serve the country and that “some of the ugliness that has come out of this election can be in the rearview mirror.”
