Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor has spoken of his excitement at going head to head in awards season with old friend and rival Idris Elba.
Ejiofor, 36, who plays a free-born black man forced into slavery in 19th-century America in the film 12 Years a Slave, is shortlisted for best actor at next month’s Golden Globes against fellow Londoner Elba, who plays Nelson Mandela in the biopic Long Walk to Freedom.
Speaking at a special screening of 12 Years a Slave at Cineworld Haymarket last night, the former Dulwich College pupil, whose parents are Nigerian, said: “I love Idris and his work and I’ve known him for 20 years so I’m very excited for him and his film.
“I was talking to him not long ago and we were reflecting on the privilege of getting to play these extraordinary people and to find audiences for those portrayals is incredible.”
The reception in the US has been “phenomenal”, he said, casting aside fears that an American audience might reject a British director and British actor telling such an American story. Ejiofor added: “People come to the film with an open mind and they recognise that these are people who are telling the story from the perspective of a diaspora as well as specific nations all of which were involved in the slave trade(take note whoopi! - op) be that Britain or the West Indies, or Nigeria where my heritage is and where hundreds of thousands of slaves came from.
“It did feel correct that there was an international element to the story because these were international events and that has been a concept that has been welcomed in the States. ”
The film is directed by another Londoner, the Turner Prize-winning artist Steve McQueen. It is based on the 1853 memoirs of Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York kidnapped and sold into slavery, and features harrowing scenes of brutality. But McQueen, 44, who grew up in London and is of Grenadian descent, defended the violence. “Either we are making a film about slavery or we are not,” he said. “I wanted to tell the truth and I needed to see those scenes as a filmmaker and as someone whose ancestry went through that.”
The film has secured seven Golden Globes nominations including McQueen for best director, Michael Fassbender for best supporting actor, Lupita Nyong’o for supporting actress, best screenplay and best score.
The film is released in Britain on January 10. The Golden Globes awards ceremony takes place on January 12.
source
Trying not to picture them sitting around with a plate of jollof rice, sipping malta guiness while watching nollywood films.