Tf interview: chiwetel ejiofor
On going from 12 Years A Slave to Marvel and Ridley Scott’s The Martian.
chiwetel Ejiofor is a busy man. Currently starring to rave notices in a contemporary re-staging of 15th-century morality play Everyman at the National Theatre (“Chiwetel Ejiofor is magnificent, holding the stage effortlessly, conveying real mortal terror and deeply moving humility,” gushes the Financial
Times), he’s this morning posed for a photo shoot and now meets Total Film for lunch in a quiet Marylebone brasserie. Arriving apace, 10 minutes late, he pours a glass of still water and gulps it down, pours another. A starter portion of thai crab salad duly ordered, he launches straight into discussing The Martian, the Matt-Damon-stuckon-Mars sci-fier in which he plays Venkat Kapoor, Director of the Mars Mission at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
“Ridley called and I went round to meet him at his office,” he begins, fixing Total Film with those big deep eyes which have critics scrabbling for adjectives like ‘humanity’, ‘dignity’ and, as above, ‘humility’. “I loved working with him on American
Gangster – I had a blast. He’s a great filmmaker. He’s got this incredible vision. The attention to detail, it’s amazing. We talked about The Martian in broad terms. By the time we’d finished chatting, I was really excited by the whole prospect. But I had a lot of reading up to do...” Talented as he is – Spielberg cast him in
Amistad when he was just three months into his three-year course at The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art – Ejiofor does the work. When he was cast in 12 Years A Slave as Solomon Northup, a free man living in New York who is sold into slavery in Louisiana, he learned to play the violin, collected slave stories and did physical labour to better understand the role. The result was an Oscar nomination and a BAFTA win to go with his 2008 Best Actor Olivier Award for
Othello, and his OBE (also in 2008) for Services To Drama – elevated to a CBE this year.
The son of Nigerian parents who moved to London to escape civil war, his father, a doctor, died in a car accident which left 11-year-old Ejiofor with scars on his forehead and wrists. He lived with his mother, a pharmacist, in Forest Gate, and started acting in plays at Dulwich College aged 13. The National Youth Theatre and a stint as Othello at the Bloomsbury Theatre in 1995 (and then again in Glasgow in 1996) followed, and a screen debut in TV movie Deadly Voyage. Then came Amistad, launching a stage, TV and film career of rare distinction, though it was his terrific lead performance in Stephen Frears’ 2002 immigrant-drama/thriller Dirty Pretty Things that really put him on the map – films like Love Actually, Melinda And Melinda, Serenity, Kinky Boots, Children Of Men and Inside Man followed.
But, post- 12 Years A Slave, Ejiofor has again moved up a level. He will always migrate to where the work is most interesting, be that movies, TV or Everyman at the National, but his cinema slate catches the eye now more than ever: the US remake of super-dark Argentinian thriller Secret
In Their Eyes that also stars Nicole Kidman and Julia Roberts; alongside Margot Robbie and Chris Pine in post-apocalyptic thriller Z For Zachariah; and a certain Doctor Strange for Marvel, playing supervillain Baron Mordo.
But first there’s that mission to get Matt Damon home from Mars... How did The Martian come about? You’ve worked with Ridley Scott before. Did he get on the blower and ask you? Exactly. He was talking me through how far they’ve got with Mars at the moment. He knew all about the spaceships that would get to Mars, and how the various missions would work. And also, everything that had been left to date on Mars, and how that fits into the story. Just encyclopaedic knowledge. You put in a lot of research. Was it important to you to understand the science rather than just mouth the tech-speak? Definitely. It’s about making sure you know exactly what everything is and what everything
Working with Stephen Frears, I fell in love with filmmaking, with the process of cinema
does and what all the options are for [ Matt Damon’s
character] Mark Watney. It was fascinating. I got to speak to people from the space programme. I got to talk about some of the issues that had happened as well – how things go wrong. They got to the bottom of the Challenger disaster; it was unexpectedly cold that morning in Florida, and the cold sealed the rubber on the engines so that when it blasted off and it heated up, instead of expanding like it normally would, it had frozen and cracked. That’s what blew the ship up. The pressure of the job is severe. But your character retains a sense of humour... He’s got a wit to him, a certain playfulness, which you need. It’s something I talked about with Ridley very early on, that you can’t be this buttoned-up, buttoned-down, strait-laced science guy. Ridley was like, “I think he’s got a bit of style.” [ laughs] Scott is renowned for scale but he’s also careful to create a good environment for actors, isn’t he? Yeah. He has the size but it’s also deeply specific. You feel very supported on a Ridley Scott set because everything seems so authentic. You’re in a 360° world. By the time you walk into the building immediately– this feel buildingas if you’rein Budapestin NASA.– youIt’s stuff that you never even see on camera, like lines and lines of offices with different departments. I remember the same thing happened on American
Gangster. It was almost imperceptible when you crossed into the 1970s up in Harlem, but suddenly you look around and everything’s changed; it’s gone back in time, on the street. He creates worlds. You couldn’t have imagined such gigs when you started out. What made you want to act? It struck me when I was 13. I was in school at Dulwich College, doing plays. I think I just got interested in the literature, mainly. Maybe it was
Henry IV Part 1 or something that we were studying at school. Ordinarily, I would have been bored out of my mind on a wet Wednesday, but for some reason, something in it really spoke to me; the poetry of it, the truth-telling of it. I thought: this is really interesting because Shakespeare’s speaking something that I understand. Before that, you just think it’s this distant thing you’ve got to learn so you can pass your exams. I went down to the theatre and did a show there. There was also a girl I kind of fancied [ laughs]. I suddenly realised: this acting malarkey has a lot to offer [ laughs]. The spiritual and the physical! You’d only just began at the London Academy when Spielberg came knocking. Was it an easy decision to quit for a part in Amistad? There was a point when I thought I could come back, actually. But it was just such a phenomenal experience and such an interesting time that it felt completely crazy to then do another three years in drama school and then come out. So I felt like, “Now is the time to knuckle down and get on with it.” It must have been daunting to suddenly be on a set of that size, with those people? I was kind of shocked by it. But also, you’re a bit precocious at that age. For as much of you that is aware that something special has happened, there’s also a part of you that is like, “Well, this is just my life.” It’s only when you’re older you understand how rare those set of circumstances are. So I found myself trying to talk to Spielberg: “When I was doing Julius Caesar for the National Youth Theatre...” I didn’t know anything. He was very generous with me. Sometimes [ laughs]. You went on to work for directors like Stephen Frears, Woody Allen and Joss Whedon. Was there a game plan? No. When I got back to London, I wanted to work on stage. There was opportunity to extend the stay in Los Angeles and start a film career there, but I opted to come back because all of my ambitions were in the theatre. I didn’t at that time consider myself to be a film actor. I’d done a film or two – or a television thing and a film – but I still felt like a theatre actor, really. So I went to the National Theatre with Blue/Orange with Bill Nighy and Andrew Lincoln, and we took that into the West End. Then Dirty Pretty Things changed the direction of a lot of things. Working with Stephen Frears, I really fell in love with filmmaking, with the process of cinema. I began to discover that it was something I wanted to pursue more, and that I felt attuned to.
What made it click for you? Stephen introduced me to the poetry of filmmaking, the heartbeat of it, which was different to what I had imagined. In certain hands, it’s quite genteel as an activity, which I found touching and beautiful. I found Steven Knight’s script so rich and honest and moving. [ Pause] Because a lot of people saw the film and responded to it so well, I was cast by a flurry of different directors for a while in big parts and small parts. I was just excited to learn about filmmaking from all these different people. It’s interesting that you say “genteel” because your favourite films include Raging Bull and Do The Right
Thing. They’re not “genteel” movies! That’s true! Maybe that’s part of why I had a different idea of what the process was. Those films grab you by the throat and smack you around a bit. I thought, ‘Gosh, the process of making those must be really front-footed.’ As I grew older, I discovered De Sica’s The Bicycle
Thief. The most exquisite film, probably, period. But you’ve starred in films where you’ve had to give it the blood-and-guts treatment... In different ways, yeah. Something like 12 Years..., you have to give everything you can possibly give. But the shoot itself was great. They were great people to work with and there was great feeling, even though it was really tough. I don’t mean that every time I try a performance it has a sort of gentility to it. I mean Stephen introduced me to subtlety and levels of emotion, and trying to play the finest details of a relationship in a scene. That was great, for me, as somebody who’d come from the theatre where everything felt a little broader. Is it true that you initially wobbled upon being offered 12 Years A Slave, unsure if you could do it? I was definitely intimidated by it. There just hadn’t been a story from that perspective before, from the perspective of somebody who was enslaved. The weight of that and the responsibility of it was something... You struggle for those moments when you get the great script – and then suddenly it happens and you’re like, “Can I do this?” Which is a surprising reaction, but it was the reaction, nonetheless. Certainly, Steve McQueen was quite shocked there was any hesitation! So how do you steel yourself to cope with the responsibility? In the end, you can’t play any of that. You can’t take it on, day to day. You play the part. You analyse what your responsibility is, and what it is not. Also, working with a director like Steve McQueen – he creates a safe environment where the actor can produce the work. “Fail big” was his saying [ laughs]. You only live once, so get on with it. Solomon Northup is a passive role, to an extent, and you imbue him with such dignity, and yet you never soft-peddle the horrors. Was it a tricky balance? I never thought of him as particularly passive, exactly. Maybe physically, but I felt him a very active character psychologically. The separation from psychology and physicality is so vast; the action is the action of the mind. If he has any goal, it’s not really to be free – he doesn’t think there’s much chance of that, in a sense. His goal is to keep his sanity. The obstacles to him keeping his sanity are all the things that are happening to him. That becomes a very active pursuit for Solomon Northup. Did you feel any friction in doing the Oscar campaign, which can be rather tacky, for such an honourable film? I suppose it [ campaigning] is geared towards maybe a tiny bit lighter fare [ laughs]. You know what I mean? The subject matter we were dealing with was so on the nose and such a hot-button issue and so gut-wrenching that it’s hard to do the chat show circuit [ laughs]: “Tell us some fun things that happened on set…” But it was fairly easy. The distinction between trying to get people to see the film and ‘campaigning’ seemed subtle to me. My energy was wanting people to see the film, and also to talk about the film and to express my thoughts about the film. How did you feel about Django Unchained’s handling of slavery? I thought there was an interesting juxtaposition of the two things. I don’t know. That approach is fair enough. I’m glad that, essentially, both approaches came out at roughly the same time, and you could compare and contrast, if you like. It’s not really down to me to talk about somebody else’s film, really. But I was very glad that the nature, the tone, of 12 Years was also in the mix. And I’m sure Tarantino is as well. It enriches the ways of viewing these things, the ways of thinking about them. You must have been sent a lot more scripts after 12 Years? I’d always had a job, luckily [ laughs]. So it wasn’t a seismic change. I’ve been working in film and television for 20 years, so there’s only so much that can change. Though obviously being in something that gets that much attention means you’re not trying to convince people as much that you’re the guy [ laughs]. What about the celebrity side of things? You’re a private man. How do you keep invasion to a minimum?
I think you’ve got to be quite vigilant about that.
i love the original. secrets in their eyes shifts the tonal dynamics. It’s its own thing
If you’re not careful, you could end up spending a sizeable amount of your day taking selfies. I don’t quite know what that does to you, what that’s for. It’s fine within the context of a set environment – a premiere and a screening or whatever, a fundraiser. But when it’s a daily thing, as you walk down the street, it’s quite strange.
Surely maintaining mystery also helps with the acting? It’s always good to not be too out there with Twitter, Instagram. If that becomes a major part of your working life, an extension of your persona, it doesn’t free you to be... the bad guys. Or whatever. Your followers are expecting a certain thing from you. It doesn’t free you to go down different roads and different avenues which might not be Instagrammable. You’re currently doing Everyman at the Olivier. Not many Oscar nominees dive straight into theatre... It’s how I started as an actor. It’s the craft and stagecraft which keeps me ticking. In the Olivier, it’s 1,200 people a night. Trying to engage with that number of people, to surprise them, to take them on a journey... If you can do that, it’s easier to understand the nature of an audience sitting in a cinema. Your 12 Years co-star Benedict Cumberbatch recently talked about the “mortifying” experience of people filming on phones during his performance of Hamlet. Have you experienced this? I’ve had it, but not in the hysterical way. I thought Benedict handled that really eloquently and generously. I’m worried that if I had gone out there... you know, it would have been a disaster [ laughs]. But yeah, that would be very frustrating, I’m sure, and distracting for other people in the theatre. So well done him. You have a raft of enticing films lined up. Tell us about
Secret In Their Eyes. Why remake the Argentinian version, which is so great?
First of all, Billy Ray is a great writer.
Shattered Glass was excellent. Exactly, yeah. And he pulled together this really cool cast. To play with Julia [ Roberts] and Nicole [ Kidman], who are two extraordinary actresses… Like anybody else, I love the original. But I felt that there was room for an Americanised version. It didn’t need to step on the toes of the original.
How faithful is the remake? It sticks pretty close. If you know the original well, you’ll see the paralleled ideas. There are changes that shift the tonal dynamics more than the narrative dynamics. Because it belongs, in a sense, to America; it belongs to a slightly different culture. That’s what I think is exciting to play. It doesn’t [ follow] beat for beat. It’s its own thing, in a way.
Z For Zachariah is Craig Zobel’s follow up to Compliance and sees you, Margot Robbie and Chris Pine as survivors of an apocalypse... I was fascinated by Compliance. It’s a tough film, and so epic to try to set all of that in one burger joint. I mean, this epic discussion on people, on ethics, morality... I felt like in his hands, Z For
Zachariah is, again, a small story that could have an epic quality to it. And it does. I’ve always been fascinated by two-handers and three-handers. You can get really to the heart of things with just a couple of people who are trying to figure out an issue or themselves. That itself can be all the pyrotechnics that you need, if the script is good, and if the characters are good. Then there’s Doctor Strange, your first Marvel movie, playing supervillain Baron Mordo. Are you excited? Well, I can’t really say much. I’ll just say I’m very excited about getting the role. More than anything, as well, it’s a great opportunity to do something with Benedict [ Dr Stephen Strange] and Tilda [ Swinton,
playing The Ancient One], who are just terrific people. Do you read comics and watch superhero movies, or is this all a whole new world to you? I’ve always been a fan of comic books, the Alan Moore area, growing up. It’s been interesting to see that expand in the way that it has and become part of the cinematic universe. I suppose it was true of science-fiction in the ’80s. It allows a massive scope, and I think that scope is continually expanding, and I think that’s really interesting. And that ties us back to Ridley Scott!
Which is a nice place to finish… Certain genres allow for a real release of the imagination. That’s what you’re pushing for in the experience, and for that of the audience.
The Martian opens on 30 September. Z For Zachariah and Doctor Strange open next year.