Government Cheese is currently airing on Apple TV+; legendary music video director Paul Hunter based it on his childhood in the San Fernando Valley. Originally a short film, it was developed into a series, the story of a burglar turned inventor who returns home a changed man.
David Oyelowo starred in the short and returns in the series as an actor and producer of this unique off-kilter surrealist comedy drama. Oyelowo is one of the best actors of his generation with dozens of indelible roles in film, TV, and stage, including Ava Duvernay’s Middle of Nowhere, Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Nightingale, as Martin Luther King Jr in Selma, and the popular Paramount+ series Lawmen: Bass Reeves, to name a few. Oyelowo recently caught up with Immersive via Zoom.
[This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.]
As an actor and producer on this one, please tell me how you first became involved with the project.
Paul Hunter approached me 6 years ago with a short film script of Government Cheese. I read it and was utterly blown away by its uniqueness, freshness, specificity, and reality. In the short, I played a version of Paul’s dad, so even though there was a fantastical element, every anecdote was rooted in something Paul had experienced. So having done the short film, I was so happy with how it came out. It just had a unique tone. We talked about trying to spin it into a TV show. Thankfully, Apple TV+ came along for the ride, and that’s how we are here today.
Streaming has opened the floodgates for interesting material that may not have been made under the old system…
There has been a real uptick for me personally. My career trajectory has been in line with streaming and its popularity. I owe streaming a lot because it’s come along, and it has democratized our business in ways that mean what gets greenlit as a film or show is not entirely predicated on a handful of people who decide what they deem to be global.
That’s undoubtedly how something like Government Cheese came along and was made. I’m a massive beneficiary of streaming. Of course, it has severely challenged distribution. Every innovation brings its own disruption, but in the midst of that, there has been real advancement.
I love period pieces, especially when they’re well done. What was it like living in this world? I like how it’s a sunny and weird version of the sixties. So talk about that. It’s a very colorful show.
I am also a fan of period pieces. I’ve made several films set in the ’60s. Government Cheese is unique because it has nothing to do with civil rights or racial struggle. Of course, it was impacted by what was happening racially and in terms of civil rights, but we didn’t focus on that here.
It was Paul Hunter’s existence, and there was an elevated element of surrealism to everything. It’s a quirky family, but it’s all based on Paul’s upbringing as a young guy. Growing up in the San Fernando Valley in the sixties and seventies, every time we had a scene that I just thought was a little bit outlandish, Paul would have some anecdote that rooted it in the truth of what happened with him, which is how I approached playing a version of his dad.
What was it like working with Bokeem Woodbine?
It was just a complete joy working with Bokeem Woodbine. I was already a fan and keen on him playing this role. I felt strongly that whoever was going to play Bootsy needed to be someone who came with a degree of history. I’m always looking for actors who elevate what I am able to bring to the table, and boy, did Bokeem do that with Bells on.
I couldn’t have anticipated the level of chemistry we were going to have out of the gate. His character was actually originally meant to be killed off. After a scene or two with him, I literally walked towards my fellow producers and said, “There is absolutely no way we are killing that character off.”
Talk about some of the challenges of doing this show.
One of my biggest challenges on this show was that I am apoplectically phobic of snakes. We did episodes five and six, where we did a lot of shooting in Lake Piru, California. We were in snake-infested fields, and we had to have three wranglers. They consistently found snakes that they were putting in buckets while we were trying to shoot.
I am also one of those kids Steven Spielberg ruined with Jaws. So any body of water where I can’t see the bottom has a shark in it. I had to swim in Lake Piru, which is notoriously dangerous for its crazy currents. People have lost their lives in it, so it was a real exercise to face my fear and do it anyway.
Any favorite moments?
Any moment with Simone Missick was a complete and utter joy. She’s a fantastic actress. We knew that the show lives and dies to a certain extent based on how well we can show their history and the love being challenged between Hampton and Astoria. She was just a great scene partner. I had this crazy idea that we should go and learn ballroom dancing together to get comfort, and she was so game for all of that. It paid off in the show itself.
Paul Hunter and Aeysha Carr were a good team. Let’s focus on her for a moment. What was it like working with her? And then as a duo?
Aeysha Carr has the experience of a writer who’s been in many writers’ rooms and crafted many television episodes. They were a dynamic duo because Paul is a great visualist, and Aeysha is a consummate storyteller. That’s how we were able to stick the landing on the tone.
What has it been like sharing this with audiences?
I had the privilege of watching the first two episodes with an audience at South by Southwest and at the LA premiere – both times it was an out of body experience because when you are doing something that has a comedic component, you don’t know if that side of things is working when you’re on the set. Thankfully, so many things that we hoped would resonate from a comedic standpoint did, and things that we didn’t anticipate. So many of the things that we put into the show by way of intention manifest and continue to manifest in what people are saying when they see this show, and that’s incredibly gratifying as well.
Government Cheese is now streaming on Apple TV+.
