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Chiwetel Ejiofor: 'In theatre the fear lurks all the time' Chiwetel Ejiofor: 'In theatre the fear lurks all the time'
(4 months later)
You have the sense talking to Chiwetel Ejiofor that he would always be prepared to go the extra mile. On screen and off he has a self-deprecating, generous spirit, quick to laugh, but he also carries a watchful air, a real openness to the moment. Directors – from Woody Allen to Spike Lee to Stephen Poliakoff – see this in him too. From his breakthrough role in Stephen Frears's 2002 film Dirty Pretty Things in which Ejiofor so memorably played the illegal immigrant doctor, Okwe, moonlighting as a minicab driver in London, he has been the go-to man for a particular kind of optimistic and highly credible intensity.You have the sense talking to Chiwetel Ejiofor that he would always be prepared to go the extra mile. On screen and off he has a self-deprecating, generous spirit, quick to laugh, but he also carries a watchful air, a real openness to the moment. Directors – from Woody Allen to Spike Lee to Stephen Poliakoff – see this in him too. From his breakthrough role in Stephen Frears's 2002 film Dirty Pretty Things in which Ejiofor so memorably played the illegal immigrant doctor, Okwe, moonlighting as a minicab driver in London, he has been the go-to man for a particular kind of optimistic and highly credible intensity.
He seems fated to certain roles. He made a natural Thabo Mbeki in Channel 4's Endgame, studious guardian of South Africa post-apartheid, as well as a vulnerable and profoundly human Othello in Michael Grandage's 2007 production (but he was also upbeat enough to take the song-and-dance lead in the film version of Kinky Boots). There was a longish time when Ejiofor was winning awards as best newcomer and was widely touted as the most exciting young actor of his generation. Now 36, with an OBE among many other honours under his belt, it feels as if he might be well on the way to senior statesman, but as he insists with boyish enthusiasm a couple of times as we talk, he feels he is still only just getting started.He seems fated to certain roles. He made a natural Thabo Mbeki in Channel 4's Endgame, studious guardian of South Africa post-apartheid, as well as a vulnerable and profoundly human Othello in Michael Grandage's 2007 production (but he was also upbeat enough to take the song-and-dance lead in the film version of Kinky Boots). There was a longish time when Ejiofor was winning awards as best newcomer and was widely touted as the most exciting young actor of his generation. Now 36, with an OBE among many other honours under his belt, it feels as if he might be well on the way to senior statesman, but as he insists with boyish enthusiasm a couple of times as we talk, he feels he is still only just getting started.
In the past year he has been filming two long-awaited projects: the adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel Half of a Yellow Sun which is set in his family's native Nigeria (his parents, student sweethearts, fled to Britain during the Biafran war); and also the artist Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave in which Ejiofor will star as Solomon Northup, author of the original 19th-century memoir, supported by a cast that includes Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt and Paul Giamatti. His roles, I suggest, often seem chosen with a keen sense of purpose in mind. He agrees to a point.In the past year he has been filming two long-awaited projects: the adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel Half of a Yellow Sun which is set in his family's native Nigeria (his parents, student sweethearts, fled to Britain during the Biafran war); and also the artist Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave in which Ejiofor will star as Solomon Northup, author of the original 19th-century memoir, supported by a cast that includes Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt and Paul Giamatti. His roles, I suggest, often seem chosen with a keen sense of purpose in mind. He agrees to a point.
"In terms of ambition it is not really what parts I want to play or anything, it is more what I want to feel," he says. "I look at scripts really for whether they can be moving or penetrate some kind of truth. You are constantly chasing that feeling as an actor when every part of a production comes together. Dirty Pretty Things was one time and I have felt it a couple of times since. I'm still really hungry for it.""In terms of ambition it is not really what parts I want to play or anything, it is more what I want to feel," he says. "I look at scripts really for whether they can be moving or penetrate some kind of truth. You are constantly chasing that feeling as an actor when every part of a production comes together. Dirty Pretty Things was one time and I have felt it a couple of times since. I'm still really hungry for it."
Ejiofor has not been seen on stage since he won an Olivier award for best actor in the Donmar's Othello "for the ages" but prior to the release of his new films he returns to the theatre next month, to the Young Vic, to be directed by Joe Wright, fresh from Hollywood and Anna Karenina, in an ambitious staging of a play called A Season in the Congo. The play, translated from the French of Aimé Césaire, concerns the last months of the life of Patrice Lumumba, the pan-African hero who helped to liberate the Congo from Belgian rule in 1960, became its first democratically elected leader and who, after 12 short weeks in power was deposed, tortured and killed by his enemies including the CIA and, by some accounts, the British secret services.Ejiofor has not been seen on stage since he won an Olivier award for best actor in the Donmar's Othello "for the ages" but prior to the release of his new films he returns to the theatre next month, to the Young Vic, to be directed by Joe Wright, fresh from Hollywood and Anna Karenina, in an ambitious staging of a play called A Season in the Congo. The play, translated from the French of Aimé Césaire, concerns the last months of the life of Patrice Lumumba, the pan-African hero who helped to liberate the Congo from Belgian rule in 1960, became its first democratically elected leader and who, after 12 short weeks in power was deposed, tortured and killed by his enemies including the CIA and, by some accounts, the British secret services.
To research his role Ejiofor felt, typically, that he had to go and see for himself the country in which Lumumba lived and died. The repercussions of Lumumba's murder, which brought to power the brutally corrupt and despotic Mobutu Sese Seko, are still being felt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, particularly in the east of the vast country, where war has killed an estimated 4 million people, and where tens of thousands remain in refugee camps. It was those camps, in the company of director Joe Wright, and a team from Oxfam, that Ejiofor visited earlier this year in order to start thinking about Lumumba.To research his role Ejiofor felt, typically, that he had to go and see for himself the country in which Lumumba lived and died. The repercussions of Lumumba's murder, which brought to power the brutally corrupt and despotic Mobutu Sese Seko, are still being felt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, particularly in the east of the vast country, where war has killed an estimated 4 million people, and where tens of thousands remain in refugee camps. It was those camps, in the company of director Joe Wright, and a team from Oxfam, that Ejiofor visited earlier this year in order to start thinking about Lumumba.
"I was in Goma," he recalls, "which is an extraordinary place to be. We crossed the border from Rwanda and were almost immediately in the midst of these camps, thousands of displaced people. People had been there for years in some cases. They had got caught up in the fallout from the Rwandan genocide, which became their own war, and all that time the eyes of the world have looked away." He talks about some of the people he met in a place that "was as close as I have ever seen to despair… a woman who when the rebels had come in and killed three of her children in front of her had grabbed the fourth and fled and ended up here. And what did she dream of? You know, a sewing machine so she could start to rebuild her life…" And he talks too of the other unpalatable side of that conflict, the fact that it is fuelled to a large degree by the world's need for Congo's mineral wealth, particularly coltan, the rare ore that is a key component of all our computers and mobile phones."I was in Goma," he recalls, "which is an extraordinary place to be. We crossed the border from Rwanda and were almost immediately in the midst of these camps, thousands of displaced people. People had been there for years in some cases. They had got caught up in the fallout from the Rwandan genocide, which became their own war, and all that time the eyes of the world have looked away." He talks about some of the people he met in a place that "was as close as I have ever seen to despair… a woman who when the rebels had come in and killed three of her children in front of her had grabbed the fourth and fled and ended up here. And what did she dream of? You know, a sewing machine so she could start to rebuild her life…" And he talks too of the other unpalatable side of that conflict, the fact that it is fuelled to a large degree by the world's need for Congo's mineral wealth, particularly coltan, the rare ore that is a key component of all our computers and mobile phones.
I travelled in that horribly unstable part of the world myself a while ago and well remember the contrasts that Ejiofor describes. The endless potential, the unbearably grim reality. By immersing himself in that place, what was he hoping to learn for his role?I travelled in that horribly unstable part of the world myself a while ago and well remember the contrasts that Ejiofor describes. The endless potential, the unbearably grim reality. By immersing himself in that place, what was he hoping to learn for his role?
"Well," he says, "I think you have to go, otherwise you are guessing. I mean, I didn't know anything about the Congo beyond what I had read in books: King Leopold's Ghost and so on. I don't think it would have been possible for any of us to do this play without that visit. In many ways what I was looking for was the landscape. Just understanding what it looks like. You want to see what they are fighting for. It's like if you listen to speeches by Nelson Mandela: so much of it is in relation to the land.""Well," he says, "I think you have to go, otherwise you are guessing. I mean, I didn't know anything about the Congo beyond what I had read in books: King Leopold's Ghost and so on. I don't think it would have been possible for any of us to do this play without that visit. In many ways what I was looking for was the landscape. Just understanding what it looks like. You want to see what they are fighting for. It's like if you listen to speeches by Nelson Mandela: so much of it is in relation to the land."
In Kinshasa Ejiofor managed to meet and spend some time with Lumumba's widow and her two sons, in the house where the leader had lived, which is preserved pretty much as it was 50 years ago. He sat in the study where Lumumba formulated his first government, full of urgent bespectacled hope. "It was as if the country went into a psychological split at that point," he says, "a split that was felt right across Africa. Here is a guy who is not a communist actually, who is a socialist, supporting social justice and peace, and transparent government, and after a few weeks he was hacked to pieces and acid was poured on the remains so no one could find them. It's as if the people are still coming to terms with that…"In Kinshasa Ejiofor managed to meet and spend some time with Lumumba's widow and her two sons, in the house where the leader had lived, which is preserved pretty much as it was 50 years ago. He sat in the study where Lumumba formulated his first government, full of urgent bespectacled hope. "It was as if the country went into a psychological split at that point," he says, "a split that was felt right across Africa. Here is a guy who is not a communist actually, who is a socialist, supporting social justice and peace, and transparent government, and after a few weeks he was hacked to pieces and acid was poured on the remains so no one could find them. It's as if the people are still coming to terms with that…"
There have been films about Lumumba, but a play seems a natural medium for what was a Shakespearean kind of tragedy, bloody and earth-shifting. Pauline Opango, Lumumba's widow, has borne witness to it for half a century, and of late has become symbolic of a liberation struggle that is ongoing. "She is incredibly graceful and charming and good to talk to," Ejiofor says. "The family are excited about the play. She is interested in what a play does, how it can recapture his energy, the energy of that time, and the fact it is not about a commercial need. Lumumba's sons are both in politics. They perceive their father as heroic, but they question some of his thinking. The country is a very different place now."There have been films about Lumumba, but a play seems a natural medium for what was a Shakespearean kind of tragedy, bloody and earth-shifting. Pauline Opango, Lumumba's widow, has borne witness to it for half a century, and of late has become symbolic of a liberation struggle that is ongoing. "She is incredibly graceful and charming and good to talk to," Ejiofor says. "The family are excited about the play. She is interested in what a play does, how it can recapture his energy, the energy of that time, and the fact it is not about a commercial need. Lumumba's sons are both in politics. They perceive their father as heroic, but they question some of his thinking. The country is a very different place now."
Congo, at its extremes of suffering, is a hard place to visit, but it is also, as Ejiofor says, a profoundly hard place from which to return. "I flew back and I remember the next day was sitting in Tate Modern having a coffee in that rooftop cafe there," he recalls. "I was looking out and thinking, you know, which one is the real world? It seems impossible that they can co-exist. And actually, probably this world of theatres and galleries is the strange fantasy, and most people in the world live lives closer to those desperate people on the verge of collapse every day."Congo, at its extremes of suffering, is a hard place to visit, but it is also, as Ejiofor says, a profoundly hard place from which to return. "I flew back and I remember the next day was sitting in Tate Modern having a coffee in that rooftop cafe there," he recalls. "I was looking out and thinking, you know, which one is the real world? It seems impossible that they can co-exist. And actually, probably this world of theatres and galleries is the strange fantasy, and most people in the world live lives closer to those desperate people on the verge of collapse every day."
In some ways it is tempting to think that Ejiofor has always lived a version of that disjunction. That because of the circumstances of his birth he carries some of the world's wider concerns in his armoury as an actor. He grew up in the East End of London, with an elder brother and two younger sisters, before attending the fee-paying Dulwich college, and then joining the National Youth Theatre, but holidays were always in Nigeria.In some ways it is tempting to think that Ejiofor has always lived a version of that disjunction. That because of the circumstances of his birth he carries some of the world's wider concerns in his armoury as an actor. He grew up in the East End of London, with an elder brother and two younger sisters, before attending the fee-paying Dulwich college, and then joining the National Youth Theatre, but holidays were always in Nigeria.
He agrees that he lived in those two worlds in his head, to a degree, but of course, with a laugh, "Congo is not Nigeria… the difference had been something I have always thought about, but it was pretty middle-class out where we were in Enugu in the south. Big houses, satellite TV. I mean I would say to friends at school who were going skiing or whatever, 'We are going on holiday to Nigeria', and they would look aghast. But seeing my grandparents, lots of family, it was great. Then, however, I was involved in this terrible car accident out there, so it confirmed everyone's idea of the place and it affected my sense of Nigeria as well in some ways."He agrees that he lived in those two worlds in his head, to a degree, but of course, with a laugh, "Congo is not Nigeria… the difference had been something I have always thought about, but it was pretty middle-class out where we were in Enugu in the south. Big houses, satellite TV. I mean I would say to friends at school who were going skiing or whatever, 'We are going on holiday to Nigeria', and they would look aghast. But seeing my grandparents, lots of family, it was great. Then, however, I was involved in this terrible car accident out there, so it confirmed everyone's idea of the place and it affected my sense of Nigeria as well in some ways."
The car accident happened when Ejiofor was 11. He was in a taxi on the way to the family home; his father, then 39, a doctor in London, a vibrant singer of his own songs – and Ejiofor's hero – was killed, along with the driver and another man. Ejiofor, whose forehead bears the scars of the crash, survived after spending 11 weeks in a Lagos hospital.The car accident happened when Ejiofor was 11. He was in a taxi on the way to the family home; his father, then 39, a doctor in London, a vibrant singer of his own songs – and Ejiofor's hero – was killed, along with the driver and another man. Ejiofor, whose forehead bears the scars of the crash, survived after spending 11 weeks in a Lagos hospital.
He is understandably reluctant to make this event the only shaping force in his biography – it was a long while after he started doing interviews that he even made it known – but of course it doesn't go away. Did it change his idea of Nigeria?He is understandably reluctant to make this event the only shaping force in his biography – it was a long while after he started doing interviews that he even made it known – but of course it doesn't go away. Did it change his idea of Nigeria?
"Well, in my teenage mind I kind of unfairly blamed the country, I think," he says. "It was only a few years ago, when I was shooting Endgame and I decided to fly back to Nigeria to see my grandfather, that I began to get over that. I had to get a car out from Lagos to Enugu and I realised this would be the first time driving on the same road that killed my father; making the decision to do that and confront it was a really important part of me coming to peace with the place. After that I think I have begun to get quite excited about the country again. And I was able to shoot Half of a Yellow Sun there in the south last year, which was a great experience.""Well, in my teenage mind I kind of unfairly blamed the country, I think," he says. "It was only a few years ago, when I was shooting Endgame and I decided to fly back to Nigeria to see my grandfather, that I began to get over that. I had to get a car out from Lagos to Enugu and I realised this would be the first time driving on the same road that killed my father; making the decision to do that and confront it was a really important part of me coming to peace with the place. After that I think I have begun to get quite excited about the country again. And I was able to shoot Half of a Yellow Sun there in the south last year, which was a great experience."
He is getting to the age his father was when he died. Does it make him more vivid in a way?He is getting to the age his father was when he died. Does it make him more vivid in a way?
"I am struck by how young he was and how much he had done!" Ejiofor says with a smile. "I am a bit daunted by him still. It has always been a growing and changing relationship for me. I may reach an older age but I will never be the older man.""I am struck by how young he was and how much he had done!" Ejiofor says with a smile. "I am a bit daunted by him still. It has always been a growing and changing relationship for me. I may reach an older age but I will never be the older man."
His father was a keen musician, and I wonder if he thinks he inherited his gift for performance from him.His father was a keen musician, and I wonder if he thinks he inherited his gift for performance from him.
"Well he did like to play and to sing. But I just thought acting was a great way of expression. I was probably 14 or 15 when I was first on stage at school doing Measure for Measure. I immediately felt it was a great way of expressing oneself at a moment when I didn't think I could express myself really. I suddenly had access to this range of emotions and thoughts and feelings that were there in me. I was surprised by that.""Well he did like to play and to sing. But I just thought acting was a great way of expression. I was probably 14 or 15 when I was first on stage at school doing Measure for Measure. I immediately felt it was a great way of expressing oneself at a moment when I didn't think I could express myself really. I suddenly had access to this range of emotions and thoughts and feelings that were there in me. I was surprised by that."
His subsequent commitment to that feeling has, he fears, often been at the expense of building a life off camera and off stage. He describes himself as a romantic, but he has no interest in discussing his romantic life. His awe at his father's achievements lies to a large extent in the fact that he was able to have a wife and large family as well as an involving career. He confesses he finds the intensity he conjures as an actor harder to maintain in real life.His subsequent commitment to that feeling has, he fears, often been at the expense of building a life off camera and off stage. He describes himself as a romantic, but he has no interest in discussing his romantic life. His awe at his father's achievements lies to a large extent in the fact that he was able to have a wife and large family as well as an involving career. He confesses he finds the intensity he conjures as an actor harder to maintain in real life.
"That's the hard thing," he says with a laugh. "It's a terribly tricky balance in that sense. It is almost as though you have to train yourself not to focus on your work in order to let other things breathe. I have not been able to do that, to be honest, so far. But I am working on it. Since I started acting I always or often find work takes precedence with me. And that is not necessarily a great rule for life.""That's the hard thing," he says with a laugh. "It's a terribly tricky balance in that sense. It is almost as though you have to train yourself not to focus on your work in order to let other things breathe. I have not been able to do that, to be honest, so far. But I am working on it. Since I started acting I always or often find work takes precedence with me. And that is not necessarily a great rule for life."
For a while Ejiofor tried to live in New York but found it a bit overwhelming. He keeps a place in Los Angeles but it is in London, where we are talking, that he feels at home "I have lived all over, south, east, west and it is forever interesting to me."For a while Ejiofor tried to live in New York but found it a bit overwhelming. He keeps a place in Los Angeles but it is in London, where we are talking, that he feels at home "I have lived all over, south, east, west and it is forever interesting to me."
Being back on stage here after more than five years away feels something like a homecoming, he suggests. When we speak he is starting to reinhabit the old tensions. "I think these days as an actor I probably figure out what I am trying to get to a bit quicker," he says. "But it is always a balance. I think as a younger actor you are more open to the experience. And to an extent you want to go into things blind and energised as if you were 15. Keep that terror. I know I am going to feel that. When you are in a theatre run you can never shake it really. You can pretend you are having a normal day but you know at 7.30 you are on. The fear lurks all the time in your subconscious."Being back on stage here after more than five years away feels something like a homecoming, he suggests. When we speak he is starting to reinhabit the old tensions. "I think these days as an actor I probably figure out what I am trying to get to a bit quicker," he says. "But it is always a balance. I think as a younger actor you are more open to the experience. And to an extent you want to go into things blind and energised as if you were 15. Keep that terror. I know I am going to feel that. When you are in a theatre run you can never shake it really. You can pretend you are having a normal day but you know at 7.30 you are on. The fear lurks all the time in your subconscious."
He doesn't envy Adrian Lester who is currently living with Othello's torments six times a week on the South Bank. "Just thinking about it unnerves me a bit," he says. "That last act is quite something to do every night, you have to be very physically fit. If you go for Othello's breakdown too hard in act IV, if you go really apoplectic, then you are done, finished well before the end. So you have to hold a little back, know how to pace it."He doesn't envy Adrian Lester who is currently living with Othello's torments six times a week on the South Bank. "Just thinking about it unnerves me a bit," he says. "That last act is quite something to do every night, you have to be very physically fit. If you go for Othello's breakdown too hard in act IV, if you go really apoplectic, then you are done, finished well before the end. So you have to hold a little back, know how to pace it."
He will no doubt face a similar challenge in the two-month run of his role as Lumumba who, carrying the hopes of a world on his shoulders, goes from electrifying rhetoric to brutal suffering in the course of a couple of hours. When we speak Ejiofor has not worked out how he will pace that particular journey, and bring all he learned in Congo to bear, but he is approaching it with an obsessive and cheerful energy. Having met Lumumba's family it must feel like an added responsibility to do him justice.He will no doubt face a similar challenge in the two-month run of his role as Lumumba who, carrying the hopes of a world on his shoulders, goes from electrifying rhetoric to brutal suffering in the course of a couple of hours. When we speak Ejiofor has not worked out how he will pace that particular journey, and bring all he learned in Congo to bear, but he is approaching it with an obsessive and cheerful energy. Having met Lumumba's family it must feel like an added responsibility to do him justice.
He smiles. "It is," he says, "but we will certainly be giving it a good go."He smiles. "It is," he says, "but we will certainly be giving it a good go."
A Season in the Congo is at the Young Vic from 6 Jul–17 Aug.
To find out more about Oxfam's work in the DRC go to oxfam.org.uk/drc		A Season in the Congo is at the Young Vic from 6 Jul–17 Aug.
To find out more about Oxfam's work in the DRC go to oxfam.org.uk/drc
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