How Rapper Common Reacted to His Oscar Nomination
And what "Selma" director Ava DuVernay first thought of "Glory."
— -- Rapper Common is still getting used to being able to add “Oscar nominee” to his list of accomplishments.
“To be able to reach this point is like, wow. I mean, it's a blessing,” Common recently told ABC News at the 2015 Oscar nominees luncheon. “It's something that you’re like, I put a lot of belief and hard work, and you don't know what is ahead of you. But now to be like, hey, I'm an Oscar-nominated person.”
Common, whose real name is Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr., is nominated for Best Original Song with John Legend for their song "Glory," from the film "Selma.” Common and Legend already won a Golden Globe for the song.
“One thing about the film that I really love and what we wanted to accomplish with the music was showing that this movement wasn't one person,” Common said. “It wasn't just Dr. King. It was women and men and even children that participated and decided, ‘Hey, I'm going to stand up for humanity.’”
Writing the Oscar-nominated song was also a collaborative effort with “Selma” director Ava DuVernay, Common said. After he played “Glory” for her for the first time, DuVernay told him she had wondered what she would tell him if she didn't like the song. But thankfully, she loved it, he said.
“She pushed us to make the song even bigger. ... We gave her the ground, the foundation,” Common said.
“And we ended up, you know, thank God, with something that felt that, like, it could complement and be an extension of the film ‘Selma ’ and be majestic enough for Dr. Martin Luther King.”
Common and Legend are set to perform their song “Glory” at the Academy Awards on Feb. 22.