TIFF 2015 Exclusive: Chiwetel Ejiofor Talks ‘The Martian’Played by Wilson Morales
September 28, 2015
Recently played at the Toronto International Film Festival and opening in US theaters on Oct. 2 is Ridley Scott‘s science fiction action adventure, The Martian, which is based on a best-selling novel of the same name.
Starring Matt Damon, he is supported by a cast that includes Jeff Daniels, Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kate Mara, Kristen Wiig, Sebastian Stan, Sean Bean, Mackenzie Davis, Donald Glover, and Michael Pena.
During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive. Millions of miles away, NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to bring “the Martian” home, while his crewmates concurrently plot a daring, if not impossible rescue mission. As these stories of incredible bravery unfold, the world comes together to root for Watney’s safe return.
For Ejiofor, who plays Vincent Kapoor and who was recently scene in another sci-fi film, Z for Zachariah, this role is almost similar in terms of the plot. It’s about learning how to survive while alone.
Blackfilm.com caught up with Ejiofor while in Toronto as he spoke about his role.
How would you best describe Vincent’s role?
Chiwetel Ejiofor: Vincent headquarters the head of Mars missions at NASA, so he is responsible then for all of the Aries missions, which is the crafts that are going to Mars, and the safety of the astronauts and their return. Once Mark Watney is established to be alive, Vincent Kapoor has to work in order to first of all, keep him alive, and secondly to get him home. He has to coordinate that with the Jet Propulsion Lab, headed up by Benedict Wong and with Jeff Daniels playing the Head of NASA.
They don’t agree on absolutely everything, but as is the way with those three men in their positions, there’s no sense of compromise. You either do one thing, or you do another thing, because these stakes are too high, and there isn’t any kind of gray area. That is the tension and the stress of those guys, but they find humor. They find a ways of relaxing, of embracing the complications of the situation. And have as characteristic traits, having to keep a level head, and to lateral think, and to problem solve.
What was the attraction to doing this?
Chiwetel: Great character, great part, and a great director in a really terrific story. It’s really about community, and responsibility. Responsibility to one’s self, responsibility of others to each other. I felt that that was a very inspiring message, and something that was inspiring and aspirational as well, of being our better selves, or best selves.
Had you read the book prior to this?
Chiwetel: I read it once Ridley had brought it up. I hadn’t heard of the book, actually. When Ridley asked to meet me and talk about it, he talked about it in broad terms, and I went back and got the book … He sent me the book, actually, and the script. I just thought it was really interesting. It was hard to know quite how he was going to do all of these things. It’s not really been done before, this type of story in this way. I was very excited about it.
How was working with Ridley the second time around?
Chiwetel: Great. It was great the first time on American Gangster. I had a really eye-opening experience, because his sets are so immersive. You really feel like you’re inside Ridley Scott’s imagination when you walk onto a Ridley Scott film set. It’s a really cool, engaging place to be. I was very excited about that, and very happy to work with him again. Everything is top level.
Outside of the astronauts, you’re the one character traveling everywhere. From inside the office of NASA, to going to the other places, going to the hangar. It’s a lot of movement for your character.
Chiwetel: Yeah, well he’s the Head of Mars missions. He’s got to get like, run up and close and personal to every single thing that’s happening. They have access to all of the information. If you look at a sequence like me going to JPL to meet the guys who worked on the 1997 Program, which actually happened, it was all real. The Pathfinder Program …
How was working in such a high tech film about space?
Chiwetel: There is a Pathfinder replica at JPL. The Pathfinder replica that we used in the film is exactly a replica of Pathfinder that is on Mars, as we speak. That’s what working in a Ridley Scott film feels like. The attention to detail is incredible. That thing, all the bells and whistles, and it coming up and rotating, all happened in real time on set with a thing capable of, you know. I guess that’s what’s brilliant about it. As an actor, you feel as if you are part of that. You’re not make-believing as much.
What makes you say yes to the roles you are offered?
Chiwetel: I think if it can be a combination of things. It can be a director, a script. If it’s something that I feel like I’ve not seen before from myself, and I want to explore it. With Z for Zachariah was a really interesting script for me. I really liked Craig Zobel’s film Compliance, and it was a tough film, but I really loved it in a way. Then I read Z for Zachariah, and I was like, “This is fascinating to me.”
To understand this very delicate nuanced and subtle dynamics and shift of dynamics in these relationships. I could watch it forever, as the mood plays and changes. I think for me that’s one of the things that really drags me into something. If it’s a tone or a mood that I haven’t explored before, that I haven’t seen myself in, but I know is part of me. That’s a wonderful thing to explore as an actor.
It’s been a few years since 12 Years A Slave. You’re in a stride right now where you’re appearing in a lot of bigger films. Although you’ve been working for a long time, are you feeling now that you’re getting the right roles that you can take?
Chiwetel: For the last decade or so, I suppose , I’ve been working in films that I’ve loved. I fell in love with working as a film when I did Dirty Pretty Things. Stephen Frears, and working closely with him really opened up the universe of being a film actor to me. I feel like there’s always been the engine of me working in cinema has always been there. Which is why Steve McQueen came to me in the first place about 12 Years A Slave.
That still feels like part of the engine, and that’s still part of the ticking over. It doesn’t feel like it’s been interrupted exactly, or accelerated. It just feels like it’s a continuation of work and building up a body of work, and pushing towards some overwhelming question that I don’t know the answer to.
With a cast this big, did you get a chance to work, talk to each other, and become friends? Or did you come in and do your scenes?
Chiwetel: Yeah. I only shot the NASA stuff and the JPL stuff. In fact, the whole space craft stuff and Matt’s stuff was done later. We shot that first in Budapest, so we were out. I didn’t even meet any of those guys. The whole cast has only just got together now in Toronto. Some people had even met each other before. Like, “I hope to work with you one day, maybe.” We were in the same movie, but we didn’t work together- That was fascinating. Obviously the relationships and the build up with our little groups was great, but in the wider sense we were all disbanded.
How was working on Secrets in the Eyes with Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman? Have you seen the original?
Chiwetel: I had, but a while ago. I knew basically that it’s tough to do something that is so brilliant, the original, so making an American version, you have to justify that in your mind of what is different between the Argentinean version and the American version. It turns out quite a lot. The countries themselves are so different that it produces a completely different energy, and bite, and structure to the film, I think. I think that’s kind of a fascinating thing. Working with Julia and Nicole is a great draw. Two absolutely terrific actresses and grand people.
With your addition to Doctor Strange, were you into comic books?
Chiwetel: I was always into Alan Moore, so I always had that … I loved all the ones that essentially became movies, but I knew them well before they became movies, like so many other people. From Hell, and The Watchmen … I could reread The Watchmen at any given point. I just loved it so much, and all of the blurbs, and the writing in between the chapters and everything. All the background, the detail, and the poetry.
A lot of the stuff that couldn’t make it into the film, the boy reading the comic book, and the comic book being a stranded story of Robinson Crusoe. There was a whole world, layers of a world that it created. Same in From Hell, and I was fond of 2000 A.D., ABC Warriors and Road Trooper, and all of that stuff that would kind of make you a geek back then, and probably still now. I loved it, and then it all became main stream, which was kind of amazing and cool.
