TIFF 2016 Exclusive: Director Amma Asante Talks ‘A United Kingdom’
Posted by Wilson Morales
September 20, 2016
Recently making it World Premiere at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival was director Amma Asante’s racial drama A United Kingdom, which stars David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike in a love story based on the true tale of Seretse Khama and Ruth Williams.
Having received solid reviews with many critics praising the performances of Oyelowo and Pike, Fox Searchlight was reported to be in final talks to purchase the film for North America distribution. It’s slated to open the 60th BFI London Film Festival on Oct. 5.
Written by Guy Hibbert, Oyelowo plays Seretse, heir to the African throne of Botswana, who created a sensation in 1948 by engaging in a whirlwind romance in London with Williams, a white English office worker he married in 1949.
The interracial union was opposed by both their families, as well as the British government, the Tribal elders of Botswana and the apartheid government of South Africa. The couple would not be denied, overcoming huge obstacles to be together. His uncle attempted to depose him, and he ended up being banned from his home country South Africa in 1951 due to its illegal stance on interracial marriage.
Their son, Ian Khama, is currently the freely elected president of Botswana.
For Asante, Kingdom comes after she directed 2014’s period drama Belle that starred Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Sam Reid. Asante loves to tackle race and period drama. For her next film, George MacKay has been cast opposite Amandla Stenberg in “Where Hands Touch,” a coming-of-age love story set in World War II Berlin.
While in Toronto, Blackfilm.com spoke exclusively with Asante on getting involve with A United Kingdom, its story and working with her old friend David Oyelowo.
How did you come about to finding and directing this story?
Amma Asante: Well, what was interesting to me was first of all, I go back a very long way with David Oyelowo, 18 years. I had written my first TV series, which I was producing for the BBC, and I cast David straight out of drama school in his first role as a lead.
So, 18 years later, David calls me up and says, Amma, you know what, four years ago I came across a book that some producers I was working with had optioned the rights to. It’s this story of Seretse Khama, have you heard of him? I said, no. He said, “well, I had never heard of him either, but, this is the story,” and he unfolded the story to me, and he said, “I want to send you some stuff, because I think now is the right time for us to make it, and I think you would be a great director. So, when you have a look at the materials, let me know what you think.” I was like, “David, I’m moving home, not just home, but country at the moment. I may take a look at it maybe at the weekend or maybe next weekend.” He was like, “No, you have to do it now.”
So, he sends me a photo essay of the couple’s, it’s maybe about I don’t know 20 images, real images of the couple, there’s a script that exists at that point, and eventually I read the book that the film is an adaptation of called Colour Bar written by Susan Williams. I had a look at everything. I was really intrigued by them, really intrigued by this black guy in an overcoat, running around London in 1947. I was really interested in that, completing his education in the U. K., what did that all mean. I was intrigued by the fact that he was African. I was also intrigued by the fact that this would involve the two continents that were relevant in raising me into the person that I am today. I said, “Yeah, I like it, I’ve got some thoughts on the script, but I will get back to you.” He’s like, “No, write your notes down now.”
Before I knew it, I was onboard this project. What is it that attracted me? Well, yes, the two continents that are most important in raising me, but, also the idea, and it wasn’t quite there in the script at this particular point. My dad was … I’m the child of two parents that grew up in a colonial country where they saw their country come to independence. Ghana, where they came from was the first sub-Saharan African country to gain its independence, and my dad stood in Independence Square as they call it and waved that flag when Gold Coast became Ghana.
My dad was a pan-Africanist. He believed in the United States of Africa, and he raised me with the mantra of understanding that the colonialist’s M.O. was to divide and rule and actually the only antidote was United We Stand. I was raised with that. I was raised with the speeches of Kwame Nkrumah, in my mind, in my head, all of the time, four, five, six years old, I remember this. I was intrigued with an element that wasn’t quite in the script at the time, but was in the book.
This idea that the seeds of black independence were being planted within Africa around about the same time as white supremacy was on the rise, and that these two ideals were vying for control in Africa at this particular time. I was intrigued with the idea that we could create for Seretse, just to flesh out his character a little more, a journey that involved questions of what is it to be a leader, what is it to be an independent country, what is it to be master of your own fate and your destiny. Is being a leader about being a ruler, a king, or is it about serving your people?
What are all of these elements about, and kind of building that into an inner arc for Seretse to follow as well as the outer obstacles that were placed in front of him, so, it was that, a story of African independence, it was being able to ensure that the black female points of view were represented in the film, so, ensuring that Seretse’s sister was in the film, and also together with Seretse’s aunt, that point of view, I know would have been my mother’s point of view, my aunt’s point of view, and if my brother had hooked up with a white girl and said she was going to be queen of the village or queen of the nation that that view was represented, because it’s important for me to see these ideas from all perspectives.
We talked how David came aboard. How did you come down to getting Rosamund Pike as his co-lead?
Amma Asante: I had been observing Rosamund as an actress from my director’s eye for quite a long time. I really loved her presence on screen, and prior to Gone Girl, for me, it was a really kind of gentle but formidable presence which always, I could never take my eyes off of her on screen. Then, she did Gone Girl, and I was like, “Wow, this is a different side of her that I’ve never seen,” then, David had done Jack Reacher with her. Once I came on board, we all had a conversation. She was a really obvious choice to play Ruth, and David knew it, so we said, “Send a script to her.” He wanted to send the script to her anyways, so that’s what we did, we sent the script, and she really, really loved it. I thought it was really brave and courageous of her, because some actresses may have seen this as a controversial role, they may not have wanted to be seen in this type of story, but she embraced it with both hands and just said yes immediately.
Then, there’s the loving aspect between the couple. Even throughout the whole film, there’s a lot of research to be done from the British perspective, the African perspective, and the audience perspective. How did you come about, even with Belle, there’s a lot of research that has to be done. Is that stressful when you’re going to take on a project knowing you have to go back in time?
Amma Asante: Yeah, pre-production for my next period film, as we speak is set in 1943 Berlin. You’re asking me at a good time, because, yes, you do feel a responsibility, but, at the same time, it’s a joyous challenge for me. Look, I didn’t go to university, I was too busy being a child actor at the point where I needed to earn the qualifications that I needed to get me into university, so I didn’t go. My education comes from all of the research that I do for these films, and all of the knowledge that I have about history comes from burying myself for months into the project and the roots of that project.
I remember my first film which was set in South Wales in the UK, and it was set in 2004, I needed to go back to the 1940s, 50s, Wales to understand some of the history of the politics until I could understand how we had gotten to where we were present day in South Wales at the time where a bunch of teenagers, white teenagers could be running around, utterly excluded from mainstream society. But, I loved it. I loved the growth that it brings me as a film maker. It’s a challenge I relish.
Besides films or projects you’re being pitched at by producers, colleagues and friends, you’ve gotten a lot of profile in the last few years and you’ve seen stories about the lack of work for female directors, and actresses? Are you finding yourself in the same pool a little bit?
Amma Asante: No, I’m definitely a little bit above, and I’m definitely not short of project offers, which is really great. I know I felt stifled for many years in terms of telling stories. Suddenly, I took this little moment to make a film with David for David because we go back a long way, and because it had all of these elements that were important to me but also I could see how I could really bring my brand to the movie. Ultimately, the movie that I’m about to go into is an 11 year labor of love and whilst I do have projects coming at me, I have these other projects that are stored up that I’m dying to tell. I’m going to need to get through at least this next one before I’m really going to reach what I call a clean slate, and go OK.
Would you call it a mental albatross?
Amma Asante: Yes, I would definitely call that and I’m going to from now on. When you’ve been holding on to things for a long, long time, and suddenly, the door is open, perhaps you open it, and somebody else helps pull it open at the same time, you are desperate to share your vision and your gaze with the world, and I have a drive to do that.
How much help was the family or the government regarding this movie?
Amma Asante: First of all, you can’t shoot in Botswana without the permission of the Botswana people and government. We needed to obtain their permission. They were supportive, but they definitely did not feel a need and were not involved in telling us what to create or how to create it. There were many practical considerations. In many ways, you can’t just come in somebody’s village and just start filming when the village belongs to the villagers, and children are running around playing as they should be on a daily basis. You have to be respectful of that fact. We had to get permission from each village chief before we were allowed to shoot. We had in each village, a policeman would attend with us, because we could be anybody. When we say “It takes a village to raise a child,” and that saying comes from Africa, that’s what we mean, the children are free to run around and play, and we can’t be strangers just roaming around.
The government, we know that the president today is Ruth and Seretse’s son, and he’s the fourth democratically elected president. There were two other people in between. We had questions for the family, there were pictures and images, and things that we needed verified, and sometimes we shot in the real house where Ruth and Seretse lived when they came to Africa. We shot in the hospital where Seretse was born. Sometimes we needed information verified, and the book was able to give us that, and other times we needed to refer to the family. They were supportive, but not interfering.
What about the British government’s angle?
Amma Asante: Oh, the British government were great in the sense that they allowed us to film in the houses of Parliament and we were only the second film in history allowed to shoot there. They were supportive in that sense. When we wanted to get things accurate in terms of how a committee meeting would unfold, basic technical information to make sure that we were accurate in how we would depict things, they were great about. The historical facts, it was Susan Williams’ book that gave us all of that. She is a professor of history, she is the one that handled the research, she was the one who was able to provide me with not just the written information in the book, but here is the evidence. This is what you need to see. These are the facts that you need to see. So, that’s why I attribute so much to her book.
Before I wrap it up, how exciting is it to open up the London Film Festival? To get that honor, and to say … It’s one thing when you know you’re in the festival, everybody know that, but when you know you’re going to open, that’s a press release by itself.
Amma Asante: Look, London is my hometown. To have your hometown’s most prestigious film festival select your film to open it is the biggest endorsement and the biggest confirmation of your relationship as a filmmaker with your hometown, that’s big. That’s like New York for Spike Lee. Do you know what I mean? That’s the first thing. Secondly, it’s big for me because I believe I’m the first person of African or Caribbean heritage who is British as well to open the festival. One feels like we’re moving forward and I’m contributing to that factor, so that’s very important. Thirdly, it’s a huge, huge lawn, it’s a huge way to bring the film to audiences and start the British conversation with audiences by saying, “This film festival deems us the film that it wishes to represent it as the headlining film for its festival,” I mean, it’s a privilege.
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