Chiwetel Ejiofor in "Redbelt"
(Credit: Sony Classics)
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But while Ejiofor, who is of Nigerian heritage but was born in London, may bear a moniker that doesn’t seem a natural fit for theatre marquees more accustomed to the likes of Tom and Will, his staggering run of post-“Dirty” gigs indicate that stardom isn’t far outside his grasp.
Among his recent achievements: collaborations with legendary directors (Spike Lee’s “Inside Man,” Woody Allen’s “Melinda and Melinda”), notable contributions to cult sci-fi favorites (“Children of Men,” “Serenity”), and lauded roles in provocative indie fare (a Golden Globe-nominated performance as a drag queen in “Kinky Boots,” and a Spirit-winning turn as a ‘60s radio producer encouraging black empowerment in “Talk to Me”).
Now, Ejiofor enters action hero territory in typically iconoclastic fashion—as a stoic, serenely self-assured jiu-jitsu instructor whose ethics are compromised—in “Redbelt,” a martial-arts film from playwright David Mamet (yep, you read that right).
Ejiofor spoke with Metromix about sudden chocolate cravings, awkward sci-fi fanboy encounters, and why he would never dream of changing that multi-syllabic name of his.
Mamet has said that your preparation for “Redbelt” included 12-hour days of physical training. Was that the norm?
It wasn’t the norm, exactly, but it definitely happened. The physical side of it was extraordinary, and I could be working physically for hours on end.
When you found out that level of training would be necessary were you excited or did you panic?
I think there was a little bit of both. There was the excitement of [hoping] it’s gonna work out. You want to get to a point where you feel that it’s gonna be satisfying for an audience, and they’re gonna believe that you’re this guy who knows this [jiu-jitsu] stuff inside out. But at the same time, you’re looking at the clock and you know there’s only a few months, and you’re trying to balance it all out.
Did you have to cut out junk food and sweets from your diet for the movie?
Well, actually, at that point, I didn’t have that in my diet. It was only subsequently. It might have been a result of having done all the training, but afterwards, I got really into chocolate, like much more than I ever had been before. I’m still just weaning myself off it, but it was a big thing for a little while back there. But you need that, you need the release.
What was more challenging: getting in shape for this role or preparing to play a credible drag queen in “Kinky Boots”?
One really did inform the other. Having done "Kinky Boots," I was aware that you can pick up a script and not have that much time, look at it and think, “How could I ever do this?” and actually get to a level of proficiency with it. Coming into this I was thinking, “Well, you did do 'Kinky Boots,' so…”
Those two films are at such opposite ends of the gender spectrum. You’ve really run the gamut!
[Laughs] Yeah, there’s a lot in there, in those two films. They should one day show them back-to-back. It would be exciting to compare and contrast.
Your character Mike Terry may very well be the least verbal character Mamet has ever written. Were you envious of your co-stars like Tim Allen, who get to chew on those tasty Mamet-licious lines?
Not at all, really. I liked the fact that this guy sort of stepped outside some of the other aspects of Mamet’s work—that he wasn’t in any kind of verbal conflict with people around him at most points in the film. His conflicts were internalized, and a lot of them, when they happened, [were] very physical, and I thought that was just an exciting dynamic. Here’s a guy who bypasses the point where you’ve gotta be angry and shout.
He even has a line in the film about achieving victory through understanding, which marks him as more of a silent observer.
Yeah, he sees it all happening, and then when he needs to commit to being involved, he commits in the most direct fashion. It’s an extraordinary part.
You were a part of Joss Whedon’s “Serenity” which has developed a rabid online fan base. Have you had any out-there experiences with fans?
Yeah, people have said to me on the street [the line from the film], “you can’t stop the signal.” The first time I heard that, it kind of freaked me out a little, I have to say, because I didn’t immediately work out [what it meant]. I was like, “can’t you stop the signal?” And then it clicked, but by that point, they had gone. But it’s exciting, and the Browncoats [the classification for “Firefly”/”Serenity” fans] are great. It’s great to have people who are so into the film, and who are fans of it in that way.
Is it rewarding to have that experience with a film? “Serenity,” “Children of Men” and “Dirty Pretty Things” didn’t do spectacularly at the box office but they’ve all found healthy afterlives due to fans championing them so passionately.
Sure. I mean, some of the films that I’ve done that people remember, and people in the industry are incredibly big on and knowledgeable about, are films that didn’t seem to perform that well at the box office. And yet you can do a film that does quote-unquote “well at the box office,” and nobody remembers it very soon afterwards.
So it is important, I think, just to do what you believe in. It doesn’t need to be Worthy-with-a-capital-W, but work that you like and work that you [will be] proud to be associated with forever on. Some [films are] in peoples’ consciousnesses for a long time, even if they came out and they didn’t do so well. “Raging Bull” is an example that comes to mind. I think the industry is like that—good work keeps alive.
The philosophical message of “Redbelt” is that the only personal handicap you have is that which you perceive as such. Do you think that could be applied to succeeding in a name-driven industry with a hard-to-pronounce name?
Exactly. And yeah, I don’t think it’s been a hindrance to my work at all. I don’t know what else I would have been doing if I had a different name [laughs]—you know what I mean? It was always important to me that people knew that it was me. I just didn’t want to be anybody else.
