Many of you are always asking for more Chiwetel Ejiofor, so here you go. We’ll see how this works out. I suspect that this will be one of the least commented-upon stories of the day, but sometimes when I put that out there, you bitches rally your vocal support. It’s not that I dislike Chiwetel or think him untalented – I like him very much and I think he’s incredibly talented, and he’s on his way to his first Oscar nomination this year for 12 Years a Slave (these are pics of Ejiofor at the NYFF screening of the film two nights ago). The problem is that Chiwetel doesn’t say anything controversial or particularly soundbyte-y. He’s measured, intelligent, contemplative and sensitive. Maybe people would pay more attention to him if he twerked about slavery? Anyway, Chiwetel has a lengthy and interesting interview with Flicks & Bits – you can read the full thing here. Some highlights:

On the story of of Solomon Northup: “The story is so impactful and so real. The emotional journey was an extraordinary challenge, but it’s the kind of challenge where everything else kind of falls away and the character becomes an obsession. That obsession gave way to insight. I’ve thought a lot about this film in the context of how it applies to our contemporary world, and I think there is something about Solomon that stretches across time and place, that touches something very deep inside us all. It’s that sense of our own personal belief in our freedoms and our connections to our families and the people who surround us. That’s the real power of Solomon’s story. It is beautifully rich and deep and tragic and redemptive – but it’s a very human story. It’s a story about human dignity and our freedoms and what we most require in the world.

Researching the story: “The book was my template. But then going to Louisiana and seeing the real plantations where everything has been preserved, from the main house to the slave huts, and where all of these events really occurred, I got a further sense of things. I was able to talk with people about stories from that time and got a sense of all these ghosts sort of being conjured up.”

Solomon’s journey: “Music was his way of feeling connected to the community and he was considered talented and special. At the beginning of the story, he’s a charming man very much in his ascendency. He is respected in his community, but I feel that perhaps he had developed a kind of distance from the reality of what was happening in other places in America. And that’s part of what he is confronted by when he ends up in Louisiana, where he has to come to terms with all he has ignored and tried to avoid. I think he really didn’t have any concept that being kidnapped was possible, that there was even the kind of infrastructure to support that. I mean it was reported in the news, but it’s likely he thought ‘that could never happen to me.’ So as he begins his journey, I think he still believes he’s going to get out of this. Even when he’s on a boat to New Orleans, he thinks there will be a way out. He holds onto a belief that slavery is so out of tilt with the moral world, it’s impossible it could continue forever.”

Working with Fassbender & McQueen: “I was lucky that we started the process of filming with Michael Fassbender. The first three weeks of shooting were on the Epps plantation, and that gave me a great insight into their working relationship and what their dynamic is like. It’s like learning a language, it’s like being a child and learning how to speak by watching other people. I was very keen to figure out how to communicate with Steve, as he was with me. But I loved it, I love working with Steve. He is incredible.”

More on Fassbender and Fassy’s character Epps: “I think Epps has no framework for dealing with Solomon as a human being. Yet Solomon, just in his way of being, demands acknowledgment as a human. It’s a point of confusion for Epps. And I think that’s why he tries to destroy whatever that thing is in Solomon that is so free and alive. Michael found something so extraordinary and specific in how to embrace this character as a whole. He doesn’t just play Epps as a mean guy – it would be easy just to be mean – but he plays him as someone who is suffering within himself, who considers the world to be kind of against him, and tries to right that by lashing out at the things that he thinks he owns, people like Solomon and the other slaves on his plantation. Michael gave Epps a rounded quality that is equal parts engaging and terrifying.”

[From Flicks & Bits]

You know what I find interesting, just from a media-analysis standpoint? I find it interesting that the American media outlets whose target audience is African-American aren’t quite sure what to do with this film. 12 Years a Slave has been widely praised by critics all around, and it’s following a traditional Oscar-contender route through the media. But the “urban sites” aren’t paying extra attention like they were with Fruitvale Station and even Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. Is it because the director and star of 12 Years are both British and they’re seen as somehow “outside” of the African-American/American slavery experience? Or is it what I said before – Chiwetel Ejiofor is simply a quiet, decent, intelligent man and that doesn’t make for exciting promotional work?

Photos courtesy of PR Photos.