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 More Quotes by Chiwetel Ejiofor More Quotes From Chiwetel Ejiofor There's like 100 tropes that are exploded in this film, seeing those explored in different ways, I think is very exciting. Chiwetel Ejiofor entertainment From deep in the slave hut is somebody calling over 150 years to all of our experiences and all of our ideas on human respect, and all of our ideas on dignity. And I felt like that's just incredibly powerful. Chiwetel Ejiofor deep dignity respect ideas If you're looking at people like Patrice Lumumba, you are looking at people who had a very definite plan, and events overran them. Chiwetel Ejiofor plan looking you people We take it for granted sometimes that certain parts of our history are told, and we take it for granted that we know all that stuff, and we move forward along on that basis, but there are also massive gaps, and we have to try to address them. Chiwetel Ejiofor try know sometimes history I like to disappear into a role. I equate the success of it with a feeling of being chemically changed. That's the only way I can express it. Chiwetel Ejiofor feeling i-can success way I don't tend to offer up a critique unless I have a clearly formulated alternative, because there's nothing worse than people on a set or any kind of artistic life who critique something but who don't have anything to offer. Chiwetel Ejiofor nothing something life people The truth is, it's a totalitarian dictatorship when you're making films. You are the boss. You can listen to other people, and it can be a benevolent dictatorship, but it's a dictatorship nonetheless. A lot of directors go past their first experience, that's what they've come away with. Chiwetel Ejiofor you experience truth people I can watch a film, even a film that I've been in, and think, 'I'm not sure, 100 percent, what I think about it.' I'm not sure what I think about what I've done in it. Chiwetel Ejiofor i-think think i-can done I didn't know anything about '12 Years a Slave.' Not the book, not Solomon Northup, which I was quite shocked by, once I'd read it, that it wasn't a seminal text. I think it deserves to be. Chiwetel Ejiofor anything think know book As a child, I was just never that interested in the lives of my favourite actors, like Cary Grant. I do wonder whether knowing too much about someone's personal life interrupts an audience's ability to suspend disbelief, to really invest in the characters. My preference would always be that people engage with the work. Chiwetel Ejiofor child work life people Friends at school were always quite shocked that we holidayed in Nigeria, but it was all pretty middle-class, really. Chiwetel Ejiofor pretty always friends school I have an evolving relationship with my father, and his memory, especially the older I get. I know that some of the things that interested him are things that interest me. Chiwetel Ejiofor memory me relationship father I feel that I don't have to wait around for good scripts anymore, that I can get things moving more quickly. I can ring up directors I like and say I'm keen to work with them, which is pretty great. Chiwetel Ejiofor feel great good work The inherited tradition is that we don't tell stories about slavery from the perspective of the slave. It's told through the president or the lawyer. Chiwetel Ejiofor slavery tradition lawyer perspective
