David Oyelowo on Portraying a Western Legend in Lawmen: Bass Reeves

From Civil Rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. to famed Botswanan politician Sir Seretse Khama, Golden Globe-nominated actor David Oyelowo is used to playing legendary real-life public figures. The fun doesn’t stop there — enter Bass Reeves, the notorious lawman who rose to fame as the first Black deputy U.S. Marshal west of the Mississippi. It’s another juicy role the British performer was born to play, and as we learned from our recent interview with Oyelowo, he had been trying to get his new Paramount+ series off the ground for at least eight years.