{"id":38781,"date":"2023-10-27T14:02:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T12:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1915618"},"modified":"2023-10-28T05:01:12","modified_gmt":"2023-10-28T03:01:12","slug":"david-oyelowo-on-bringing-the-story-of-bass-reeves-back-to-life-in-lawmen-series","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/david-oyelowo-on-bringing-the-story-of-bass-reeves-back-to-life-in-lawmen-series\/","title":{"rendered":"David Oyelowo on bringing the story of Bass Reeves back to life in Lawmen series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oyelowo previously portrayed Martin Luther King Jr in the movie Selma. <\/p>

By Huw Fullerton\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 27 October 2023 at 12:02 PM<\/p>

\n\n

This interview was originally published in Radio Times magazine<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

He played Martin Luther King Jr in the Oscar-nominated movie Selma, now David Oyelowo<\/a> is stepping into the spurs of a very different historical figure: 19th-century lawman Bass Reeves, a real-life Black deputy marshal who some say was the inspiration for the Lone Ranger.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my research, I actually don\u2019t think that he was the inspiration,\u201d Oyelowo admits.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what I would say is, when you look at the Lone Ranger, Bass Reeves is probably the only historical figure worthy of the comparison. And I think that, in and of itself, is significant.\u201d<\/p>

After escaping slavery during the US Civil War, Reeves went on the run and learnt Native American languages, before being freed and hired as a US deputy marshal in 1875, the first Black man to hold the position west of the Mississippi River.<\/p>\n

Over his 32-year career, he was rumoured to have apprehended more than 3,000 criminals, and became a legend for never being injured \u2014 despite having his hat shot from his head more than once.<\/p>\n

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Lauren Smith\/Paramount+<\/i> <\/span>\n<\/div>\nReeves\u2019s tale has been touched on before on TV, most recently in Sky Atlantic\u2019s Watchmen, Around the World in 80 Days<\/a> on BBC1, and the Netflix film The Harder They Fall<\/a>, but he\u2019s never been a central figure \u2014 and Oyelowo thinks that, given his achievements, he\u2019s been unfairly forgotten by history.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only reason I can find why we haven\u2019t had myriad Bass Reeves movies and TV shows, and animated-this, that and the other is because he\u2019s Black and the fact that those narratives have been marginalised.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now though, Reeves\u2019s story is firmly centre stage in the new Paramount+ drama, Lawmen: Bass Reeves<\/a> (a spin-off of sorts from the streamer\u2019s popular Yellowstone<\/a> series and prequel 1883), which co-stars Donald Sutherland<\/a>, Dennis Quaid<\/a> and Garrett Hedlund and was filmed in Fort Worth, Texas.<\/p>\n
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