November 2009 | blackfilm.com | 2012 | An Interview with Chiwetel Ejiofor

November 2009

2012 | An Interview with Chiwetel Ejiofor

(November: Main Page * Features * Reviews * Screenings * Teen ) Current Issue * Archive

2012
An Interview with Chiwetel Ejiofor
by Wilson Morales

November 13, 2009

Since his breakout role in 2002's 'Dirty Pretty Things,' British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor has worked with some of the best directors in Hollywood, from Spike Lee to Woody Allen to John Singleton to Alfonso Cuarón.

Coming up next for him is a role in a disaster film called '2012,' which also stars John Cusack, Danny Glover, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt and Thandie Newton.

Disaster movie enthusiast Roland Emmerich ('Independence Day,' 'The Day After Tomorrow') crafts this apocalyptic sci-fi thriller about a Mayan prophecy that claims the world will end in 2012.

When a global cataclysm thrusts the world into chaos, divorced writer and father Jackson Curtis (Cusack) joins the race to ensure that humankind is not wiped out.

In speaking with Blackfilm.com, Ejiofor talked about the film and working with Thandie Newton again.

What attracted you to this film?

Chiwetel Ejiofor: I suppose the script and I saw the title. I like the title. It's actually a big thing. There's a lot of stuff about this and 2012 and the Mayan calendar. I knew a little bit about it, not much, and the title -- combined with Roland Emmerich -- I was like, "Wow, this is going to be something." I'm a huge fan of his films. I love the spectacle of his work and how passionate he is about bringing this really amazing cinematic experience to an audience, and really wanting to push the technologies of cinema. Then I read the script and I thought the character was terrific and really enjoyed that guy, Adrian Helmsley. By then I was pretty much sold. You're never going to see anything like this. It's a completely unique epic adventure, a great ride, great characters, great director, great fun.

Do you foresee the whole world coming to an end?

CE: It's funny, the more I talk about it the more paranoid I get. I didn't feel that way particularly initially, but then you read up about it and talk about it and think maybe there's something to it. I don't know, obviously, but you feel the planet is trying to tell us something, with global warming. This is not an ecological film per se, but it's definitely discussed in these overall issues of the state of the planet and trying to live harmoniously with it. It's raised my awareness with how much I want to consciously align myself with a sense of protecting the planet somehow.

You mentioned you've seen Emmerich's movies, and most of them are in that realm of the world going backward or forward, nothing so much about the present. If you think about 'Stargate' and 'Independence Day,' it's always this vortex of people who can see where the world is going.

CE: I suppose in the end, 'Independence Day' was about unity, a common threat, a sense that everyone can come together, the world can come together. At that time, it was a pretty radical concept. It was actually just at that moment that people weren't looking at each other anymore in this paranoid context. The Cold War was over, and the idea of everyone being unified was a new beat. That's what that was about. This film has elements of that, but there's still a progression from that. This film, more than any of the other ones, has a very deep optimism at its heart, a profound love for humanity. I think that's a great, rare thing to see in a movie.

How was shooting on green screen? Was this the first time you've done it?

CE: No, I've done bits of green screen and blue screen before. But, yeah, there was a lot of green screen in the movie, which is fine. Half the sets are built anyway.

You have crucial scenes with John Cusack and Thandie Newton. This is the first time you've worked with both, am I correct?

CE: No, I worked with Thandie on a film called 'It Was An Accident' in England.

What was it like working with Thandie again?

CE: It was great! I loved working with Thandie the first time. We were much younger and doing a very small movie in East London. I'd always wanted to work with her again, and it was amazing that these opportunities dovetailed. She's a terrific actress and a great person to spend time with. John, exactly the same. I hadn't worked with him before, we have friends in common, we'd seen each other a few times, a few of us had dinner. I knew him. It's great when you're actually thrown together with somebody. It was really cool. I enjoyed working with both of them.

You've had a lot of film work since 2002. You've been getting a lot of good roles. What was the turning point for you?

CE: I started out as a theater actor, and I never really saw myself doing films. I never perceived it. Maybe I never dreamed that big. When I was in London at drama school, I just wanted to get to the big theater houses like the National Theater or the Royal Shakespeare Company and do plays there. Then I got cast as James Covey in 'Amistad,' and it opened up a real world of cinema to me in an incredible way in Los Angeles. When that finished, I still sort of went back to theater and it was just a moment in time. I didn't feel that my life in any way would be in movies. Then when I did 'Dirty Pretty Things' with Stephen Frears, I really developed a love of cinema. He really opened something in me that was very powerful. After that film, people in America were very keen to talk to me and meet me for various projects so the two things kind of combined.

This film is a real British invasion. You and Thandie play Americans.

In terms of Brits playing Americans and Americans playing Brits, it's just a part of cinema and a part of a shared language. It's part of the "special relationship" they talk about in government. So you get to see Robert Downey Jr. play Sherlock Holmes, you get to see me play Adrian Helmsley. You want to see actors do their work and play characters that they give a lot to and sometimes that crosses borders.
You have another film coming out called 'Endgame.' What's the story about?

CE: I play Thabo Mbeki before he was president of South Africa in the '80s, when he was involved in the secret talks with a man by the name of William Esterhuyse, who was a professor at the Stellenbosch University in South Africa, a staunch Afrikaner supporter so, by proxy, a supporter of Apartheid. The secret talks that happened in Mells Park in England ultimately helped bring about the end of apartheid.

And what's your role opposite Angelina Jolie in 'Salt'?

CE: I play the counterintelligence officer William Peabody in the CIA who is trying to work out what the situation is in terms of any kind of infiltration to the agency in the United States.

You've worked with Spike on 'Inside Man' and with John Singleton on 'Four Brothers.' What won't you do and what are you looking to do?

CE: First of all, there's nothing I won't do. I like characters. I like stories that audiences can get something out of. It can be a cerebral thing, just an entertainment thing, it can be a combination of the two, which is when I think it works best. I just feel that if the stories are good and worth an audience paying a few bucks for, I'm happy to get involved.

If Avi Arad, the head of Marvel, called and said pick a character, which would it be?

CE: I don't know. I like all the Marvel stuff. I liked all the Alan Moore stuff. When I was growing up, I used to be very into '2000 A.D.' They may go back to the well with that sort of thing. I'd like to see them do the movie of 'Bad Company' or 'ABC Warriors.' I wonder whether they'll do them.

What keeps you grounded? Going back home?

CE: London is a pretty grounding place, although to be honest, I don't feel I'm a very ungrounded person by nature. It doesn't take very much, really. Touring like this and traveling the world is very cool, but I enjoy the simpler pleasures.

(November: Main Page * Features * Reviews * Screenings * Teen ) Current Issue * Archive