Dorothy Hong(NEW YORK) — David Oyelowo stars on the small screen as Peter Snowden, a war veteran struggling to adjust when he comes back home, in HBO’s Nightingale.
The Golden Globe-nominated actor in the single-scene film portrays a man clearly unraveling after he’s committed a horrible crime against his mother. Oyelowo tells ABC Radio what else is wrong with Snowden.
“We deliberately didn’t want to necessarily define what it is, but in talking to a psychiatrist, who I gave the script to read, he has what’s called dissociative identity disorder, which is what we used to know as multiple personality disorder,” he explained at a private New York City screening Thursday night. “And basically how that comes about is people are shattered into different personalities in order to deal with trauma.”
To perform solo for nearly 90 minutes, the actor said he had to stay in character for three weeks while he shot the film.
“It was the first time I had done it. I wouldn’t necessarily describe myself as a method actor but I thought it was necessitous for this particular role just because he’s so in his head,” Oyelowo said. “He’s so self-involved. Loneliness is something I wanted to really feel. I have a wife and four kids. I’m never alone so I moved into a friend’s apartment for three weeks. I just wanted to immerse myself in what it must be like to a certain degree to be him in order to be able to tell the truth.”
Part of the truth that Oyelowo wanted to display is the fact that his character is gay. It’s something Snowden can’t wrap his own head around, although he’s borderline-obsessed with an old war colleague.
“He’s in denial about his sexual disposition,” he said. “And I think that’s borne out of a very repressed upbringing. I think it’s also borne out of a loathing he has for himself, both in terms of his sexual orientation, how that is perceived by those around him, including by his mother, including having been in the military and society in general.”
HBO’s Nightingale premieres Friday at 9 p.m. Eastern.
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