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" 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

Father

Know

Relationship

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" The idea of making a film - a film that I had certainly never seen before - about the slave experience was a huge responsibility. It's a project that requires a wider understanding of the geopolitical nature of the slave trade, of historical and modern-day racism. "

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" I was already devouring literature and I was the ripe old age of 15 when I decided to be an actor. I just thought plays were the most fantastic way of expressing life. I thought I'd discovered Shakespeare - 'hey, there's a new guy in town, don't know if anyone's read him.' I was just excited about the whole thing, from day one. "

" I had done a couple of auditions for 'Amistad' and didn't feel it was going to go any further - and then the call came about heading to Los Angeles to work with Steven Spielberg. It was surreal: exciting, challenging, overwhelming. "

" Friends at school were always quite shocked that we holidayed in Nigeria, but it was all pretty middle-class, really. "

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Chiwetel Ejiofor

Remember

School

" 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. "

" It's a strange thing, but you get this click in your brain; the wonderful feeling that the entirety of a character is suddenly available and accessible to you. "

" I enjoy doing everything, comedy and drama. I just look for the characters really and what they offer. "

" It's a weird thing when you spend your life trying to find these great scripts and great parts. You are reading scripts, you are traveling the world, you are hassling your agent. You are trying to find that script. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" In England, there's no acknowledgement the invention of slavery came from Britain. "

" 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

Kind

Because

" 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. "

" Depending on what your interest in theater is, I always recommend working on plays. It's a great way to be introduced to the field, and also a great way to be seen by agents and representation. I'm also a great advocate for studying acting at a drama school or a college. "

" 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. "