[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for Government Cheese.]

Summary

The Apple TV+ series ‘Government Cheese’ follows Hampton Chambers’ journey post-prison and aims to mend his family bond.

Lead actor David Oyelowo shares insights on the unique tone of the show, rooted in surrealism and reality.

Oyelowo was drawn to the project due to the unusual story based on creator Paul Hunter’s life in the San Fernando Valley.

The Apple TV+ series Government Cheese, set in the San Fernando Valley in 1969, is a part surrealist and fantastical and part grounded in reality family story that follows Hampton Chambers (David Oyelowo), his wife (Simone Missick) and their sons, Einstein (Evan Ellison) and Harrison (Jahi Di’Allo Winston). After his release from prison, Hampton reunites with his family, invents the Bit Magician, a self-sharpening power drill, and learns how to outrun some dangerous men. But mending that family bond doesn’t come as easily as Hampton expected and it’s up to him to step up and turn it all around. During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Oyelowo discussed why he was so drawn to the project, the journey from short film to 10-episode TV series, playing a version of creator Paul Hunter’s own father, why it was important to actually shoot in the San Fernando Valley where the story is set, the father-son relationship, and capturing that final rooftop moment.
‘Government Cheese’ Has Taken a Journey From Short Film to Apple TV+ Series

“It was evident that there was so much more story to tell.”

Image via Apple TV+

Collider: I know that this developed out of a short film. What did you see in it then that interested you and what made you realize it could be more? DAVID OYELOWO: When Paul Hunter approached me six years ago with the short film script, the thing that instantaneously became evident was how unusual it was. I hadn’t read anything quite like it. I had never seen a character quite like it before. But what was so fascinating is that it was based on Paul’s life growing up in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. I was playing a version of his dad in the show. And the fact that it was so fantastical, so unusual, so outlandish, but rooted in truth, was something I just couldn’t turn away from. And when we shot the short film and it came out great, it was evident that there was so much more story to tell because Paul would just keep on telling me these anecdotes of his upbringing that were so funny and moving and unbelievable. And so, we definitely felt like there was a show there to be made. I’m just very grateful that Apple TV+ agreed. As an executive producer on this, how involved were you? What aspects were you most involved in? What do you enjoy most abut what that title gives you? OYELOWO: An executive producer or a producer on a movie can have a myriad of functions. Mine, on this, having done the short film, was getting it to our studio partners and Apple, as a network. It was the development process, and a lot of it was the casting process. A big focus of mine was the maintenance of the tone that we managed to achieve with the short film. It’s a very unusual, very specific tone that could easily be derailed by not hiring the right costume designer, production designer, and director of photography. That was a big focus of mine, really trying to be disciplined about that. And then, there are so many other hats you end up wearing in post-production and marketing, as the show is on the precipice of meeting the audience. All of those aspects, I have been involved with on this one, and that’s because I’m just so passionate about it.

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You talked about playing a version of Paul’s dad, and his mother was also a presence in the show and on set. What was that like? How does that affect things? How does that inspire things? Were there things you wanted to take directly from his real father, or did you try to create some distance? OYELOWO: In this particular instance, because it’s so fantastical, what the fact that the stories were based in truth gave you was a confidence to be able to step into them and play them for real, as opposed to sending them up or having any judgment around them. Paul’s dad is no longer with us, but his mom absolutely is. She visited the set, and she’s the one whose house we actually shot the short film in, back in the day. That gave Simone Missick a lot of confidence and a lot of clarity, as to how to play that role. Because Paul had a very specific relationship with his dad, I relied on him heavily to make sure that there was an element of truth in what I was playing, but I was also able to bring an enormous amount of fun because it wasn’t just us playing the absurd and the ridiculous without it being grounded and rooted in something that was true. So, in this particular instance, the fact that it’s based on true events was actually incredibly helpful.
David Oyelowo Felt It Was Important to Shoot ‘Government Cheese’ in the San Fernando Valley Where the Story Is Set

“Anyone who knows Chatsworth will know that we actually shot in the Valley.”

As somebody from the San Fernando Valley, I appreciate any story told in that location. What do you see as the essence of the San Fernando Valley that you wanted to capture in this? OYELOWO: I live in the San Fernando Valley as well. It’s a very specific place. Anyone who knows Chatsworth and has seen those rock formations or has seen those streets or has seen the very specific architecture of that place will know that we actually shot in the Valley. I’ve been someone who’s benefited enormously from shooting in the place that things are actually set. We had that on Selma, where we actually were in Selma, Alabama. We were actually in Montgomery, Alabama as well. I did a film called A United Kingdom, and there was a temptation, for tax purposes, to shoot in South Africa instead of Botswana, but shooting in the actual place was hugely beneficial. Same thing with a film I did, called Queen of Katwe. We actually shot in Katwe, Uganda. The location becomes a very important character in the show. And the Valley absolutely is that in Government Cheese. It would have been a travesty if we didn’t have that opportunity. This show really has such a mood and a vibe to it. It’s incredible how it simultaneously feels like it’s both of a time and yet a bit out of time. What was it like to really find that balance between everything and have it feel real while also having it feel surreal? OYELOWO: That’s why it was so important to focus on the tone. Paul Hunter is a visual artist and we worked very hard with our production designer, Warren Young, and our costume designer, Nancy [Steiner], and our cinematographer, Matt Lloyd, to make sure everything was working in concert with each other, so that it wasn’t always relying on the fantastical element being overt but implied. There are these whimsical elements to it that are still grounded, but this is how Paul remembers his childhood and we all do that through a certain lens. Memory is not necessarily rooted in actuality, so we wanted to have a bit of whimsy to it, which is also the entertainment component. And then, every now and again, it gets quite real and grounded. That is what leads to the very specific tone of Government Cheese. I don’t have many comps for it because we went for something that was felt very germane and appropriate for the show rather than trying to make it feel like anything else that we may have seen before. Hopefully, that’s something that we will be rewarded for.

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What do you love most about this father-son relationship in this? What did you enjoy most about working with Jahi Di’Allo Winston and Evan Ellison? OYELOWO: Jahi and Evan, who play our sons Harrison and Einstein respectively, are just really, really wonderful actors and wonderful human beings. We spent a lot of time in the process of selecting them because they also had to hit this very specific tone. They needed to feel real, but they needed to feel like they belonged in a whimsical, fantastical narrative set in the Valley in the ‘60s. I pointed out the period component specifically, because not every young person feels of that period. Sometimes you can get young actors who just, for some reason, feel so contemporary, whether it’s the way they move or what they look like or their disposition. It was a tough find, but a very validating and satisfying find, once we found both of them. And the chemistry that they have with each other, with Simone specifically but with all of us as a family, is one of the strongest things about the show. There are entire sections of the series where it’s just myself and Jahi out in the wild, so to speak, and that stuff really needed to work in order for the emotional arc of the show to feel solid. I’m deeply proud of them as performers and I’m very excited about them as talent.
David Oyelowo on How That Final ‘Government Cheese’ Rooftop Moment Represents Everything the Series Was Going For

“It was on the roof of an actual house.”

Image via Apple TV+

That image at the end of the season with you sitting on the roof of the house overlooking the suburban street is just so striking to look at. Were you really sitting on the roof of a house for that moment? What was it like to capture that? OYELOWO: Yeah, it was on the roof of an actual house, which was the whole point. We wanted every choice we made to not wade too far into the fantastical or too far into grounded reality. At the end of the day, what we want the show to be is a piece of entertainment, but one whereby you see yourself represented, whether it be the family or the circumstances or the time period or the demographic of the people featured in the show. Poignancy is definitely something we were going for. That end moment in the show is as much a part of what we were going for with the more parabolic elements of the show.

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Government Cheese is available to stream on Apple TV+. Check out the trailer: