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Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009
He stole "Love Actually" and "Dirty Pretty Things" and is Woody Allen's first black lead. But don't expect Chiwetel Ejiofor to play the race card.
Mar 24, 2005 | Chiwetel Ejiofor had his first role in 1997's "Amistad," but his true breakout came five years later in "Dirty Pretty Things," when he starred alongside Audrey Tautou, fresh from her breakout in 2001's "Amélie." Director Stephen Frears ("High Fidelity," "Dangerous Liaisons") reportedly resisted pressure to consider better-known American actors in favor of the then little-known Ejiofor.
The actor's profile has risen steadily ever since; he was part of the ensemble cast in 2003's "Love Actually," followed last year with a role in Spike Lee's "She Hate Me," and this year in Woody Allen's latest, "Melinda and Melinda," where he has the largest role ever for a black actor in an Allen film. Though the film has received mixed reviews, he has not. As Stephanie Zacharek wrote in Salon last week, "The only actor who escapes unscathed is Chiwetel Ejiofor ... Ejiofor, whose face radiates intelligent guilelessness, makes us believe in him wholeheartedly."
He is set to star in two action movies in the months ahead: John Singleton's revenge story "Four Brothers" and "Serenity," the on-screen continuation of Joss Whedon's canceled TV series "Firefly." And at 29, Ejiofor comes across as a man already sure of who he is. As the grandson of a Nigerian miner, he knows how blessed he is to be in the movies. But at the same time, polite as Ejiofor is, he's not a guy to be pushed around or one to answer questions he doesn't want to.
Chiwetel Ejiofor spoke with Salon from his apartment in New York's SoHo neighborhood, to which he recently relocated from his native London.
How do you find the right balance between doing theater and film?
It's always tricky. Once you're working in film a lot, it's hard to book in a time in the future when you're going to get back onstage, because it takes a much longer lead-in period. But I think it just gets to a point for a lot of actors, especially those who started out in the theater, where you feel this emotional need to get onstage. It kind of takes over, and then it's just a matter of time before you come back.
What is it about the stage that so appeals to actors?
It's everything, really. There is the thrill and immediacy in the crowd that brings a level of excitement. But there's also the whole kind of ritual of the theater: the backstage, the bars -- the whole lifestyle -- as well as getting to really explore a character over a long period of time. It's much more of an intense experience.
As opposed to sitting in a trailer for most of the day and running out for a few quick takes?
Exactly. Film just takes so much time with all the setting up of cameras and such. And then suddenly when they're ready, you have to be there to express these intense emotions at the drop of a hat. It's more difficult to do emotional scenes on film, I think, because with a play you have that momentum pushing you into it.
On "Melinda and Melinda," is it true that actors like working with Allen because there's more opportunity for improvisation?
He did say that if you wanted to, you were free to change the dialogue here and there. But I didn't really have that morning where I woke up and felt like changing Woody Allen's dialogue. I was happy pretty much sticking with what he has written.
