I like finding things out beforehand, because I'm nervous in disposition, and I worry that if I don't do anything, then I'll turn up and I still won't really have a sense of it, and it might be too late. So I like to get things as organized as I possibly can in my own head, to apply myself to the work before arriving to a late-in-the-day rehearsal, or in extreme cases, the first day on set.

Chiwetel Ejiofor

Categorized in : Worry Nervous

This is going to sound completely absurd, but I do sometimes feel like the enjoyment of an awards ceremony or the pride in the finished article hasn't ever surpassed the joy of doing the work, of making it. The doing it is really the bit I'm there for.

Chiwetel Ejiofor

awards pride joy

All roads lead home in the end. You've got to keep that in mind always - in your work and in your life.

Chiwetel Ejiofor

ends mind home

I like to disappear into a role. I equate the success of it with a feeling of being chemically changed.

Chiwetel Ejiofor

roles feelings way

I was always lucky that I've always had a gig, I'm fortunate in that way.

Chiwetel Ejiofor

gigs lucky way

The only way to be an actor is to find ways to work as an actor, even if that means doing a one-man show by a river.

Chiwetel Ejiofor

rivers men mean

I was the classic middle child in some ways, the one who could have been a priest in an alternate universe.

Chiwetel Ejiofor

middle-child children way

When you're no longer seeing yourself, in some ways. You're as close to being as you can be.I suppose that's consistent with the moment that the mind actually turns off, and is no longer questioning what you're doing. When the questions stop, that's when the real acting takes over. And trying to get to the point where the questions stop, "Would I do this? How do I feel about that as a character?" When those stop, and it's just doing X, Y, and zed, because that's what you'd do as this character, because you're inside this character somehow - that's when it really kicks off.

Chiwetel Ejiofor

real mind character

I would love to be a fly on the wall watching other directors and actors to see what their process is like.

Chiwetel Ejiofor

wall actors directors

I try to just be open to what the next experience is and how it makes me feel, just reading a project, or trying to get involved with a project, or thinking about a project, and what particular emotional flavor that brings. To me, it's never really about planning the next thing, or the career arc. It's about investigating how I feel, from project to project, and finding things that I haven't explored and what that would be like.

Chiwetel Ejiofor

emotional reading thinking

When I first had my eyebrows waxed, I was pretty disturbed.

Chiwetel Ejiofor

disturbed eyebrows firsts

Ive just tried to keep my eyes open, tried to read everything you can, and tried to see whether I see myself within it. If I do, then I can get excited about it.

Chiwetel Ejiofor

excited eye ifs

There's always something ridiculous happening on the set, especially when people get tired because of the long days.

Chiwetel Ejiofor

tired long people

My favorite thing to cook is anything that comes out okay. I'm very fond of certain pastas and sauces that I can just about cook from scratch. So those are what I like to cook, as well as roasted potatoes and chicken. Anything that tastes alright.

Chiwetel Ejiofor

pasta scratches sauce

I wanted to be an actor ever since I got on stage for the first time, aged 13. Before that, I thought I might follow in the medical footsteps of my parents: my father was a doctor, my mother a pharmacist.

Chiwetel Ejiofor

doctors mother father

Reporters tend to launch on what seems to be the clearest, most stark aspects of someone's life in terms of an interview.

Chiwetel Ejiofor

aspect interviews term

That global poverty would end. That people would be able to eat. It's the worst shame in the world that people go hungry.

Chiwetel Ejiofor

would-be people world

I started working as an actor, semi-professionally, when I was 16, and got my first professional gig at 19. I guess I've kind of worked pretty consistently since then.

Chiwetel Ejiofor

gigs actors firsts

A lot of people ask me about my father's passing when I was young, which I'm never comfortable with. I invariably move around that subject.

Chiwetel Ejiofor

father people moving

Steve MCQueen created an entire family to tell one man's tale and I am delighted that so many of this family have also been recognised today. I am hugely grateful to the Academy for this great honour, and, of course, to Solomon Northup for sharing his story through his breathtaking book.

Chiwetel Ejiofor

grateful men book

I think Africa will have a crisper impact on Europe, as it has traditionally, and then that will filter into the American cultural psyche, in the way that India has.

Chiwetel Ejiofor

impact europe thinking