"I Love Stories"
Redbelt Star Ejiofor Enters the Ring with Filmmaker Mamet

After making his first notable appearance in a small part in Steven Spielberg’s Amistad, acclaimed British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor has certainly gone on and made a significant name for himself. From Dirty Pretty Things, to Love Actually, to Serenity, to Kinky Boots, to Inside Man, to Children of Men, to Talk to Me, to American Gangster, it can easily be said this is one man who has never played the same part twice.

Chiwetel Ejiofor in Sony Picture Classics' Redbelt

Ejiofor’s latest effort Redbelt is certainly no exception. Working with the great David Mamet (House of Games, Heist), the Golden Globe-nominated thespian plays Jiu-jitsu teacher Mike Terry, a proud and resourceful man who is put to the ultimate test after an accident shatters the calm of his Los Angeles school. I sat down with the performer in downtown Seattle’s W Hotel to discuss the film and his career, our spirited 20-minute conversation flying by so fast it felt like it was over almost as soon as it began.

“I was a huge fan of David’s [work],” admitted Ejiofor when I asked him what initially drew him to the project. “Not just his films, but his plays and his screenplays, even the ones he didn’t direct. It’s just an incredible body of work and I was just a huge fan, I’m I’ve been studying his plays since high school, so right from the start I was thrilled that he wanted me to read the script and that we were talking about doing this project.”

And did the script measure up to his expectations? “It was terrific,” he admits without any sense of irony. “It was incredibly sort of unique and detailed and was a fascinating look into a completely new world I knew absolutely nothing about. So, reading it, I thought very quickly doing it would be absolutely great fun.”

While the world of Redbelt is undeniably Mamet’s, there are some unique differences here then what audiences are used to seeing from the award-winning writer and filmmaker. While that patented rat-a-tat-tat rhythmic dialogue makes more than a few appearances, for the most part the filmmaker relies upon silence and body language to get his points across. I couldn’t help but wonder if Ejiofor was surprised, or if he even agreed, with this assessment of the material.

“There is something very different about this film in terms of his gamut of [prior] works,” agrees the actor. “I think it has to do with the ideas of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, because there is a level of spirituality and deep meditative sense of thought and feeling, it does then by definition move slightly away from the hard-edge, macho, edgy material of some of [Mamet’s] other work. I think that permeates into the script and in many ways it is a film about people trying to understand something about themselves and how they fit into society at-large.”

“It’s not necessarily a film about people combating their position in society which is sometimes what he talks about in some of his other work. There is a slightly more meditative quality to this film, I think, which I think is exactly what [Mamet] envisioned when he wrote it.”

Emily Mortimer and Ejiofor grapple in Sony Pictures Classics' Redbelt

Although the character of Mike Terry is a fighter at heart, he never once actually hits an opponent himself. Instead, he uses their actions and attempts to do so against them, moving his body in ways which deflect their blows putting him in position for the ultimate victory. This isn’t exactly something you see every day in a drama involving competitive martial arts and I ask the actor if this was something he found different or unusual.

“Well it’s the nature of Jiu-jitsu,” Ejiofor responds. “Jiu-jitsu isn’t a ‘strike’ martial art, it’s a grappling martial art, so in any contest if anybody is trying to strike you then the movie would entail something involves them in close proximity in either a throw or a lock. So, the physicality of it in some way does parallel how Mike Terry is as a person. He’s not the sort of person who is going to strike verbally in terms of emotion or in terms of action or deed. He’s the sort of person who is going to receive it but not as a sort of blow but instead do his best to deflect it back and try to reinterpret the energy coming towards him in a way that is more useful.”

“With Jiu-jitsu there is a sense of alchemy in a way that you take the energy coming towards you and then you change it into something else and either send it back out and deal with it or do your best to stop it right there.”

All of which sounds great in theory, but as far as an exercise in acting was concerned it had to be difficult. Usually performers take verbal blows from one another like prize fighters, feeding on them in a way that hopefully elevates their work into something natural and timeless. It’s the same for human beings in general, our usual reaction to someone berating or coming out us in anger or animosity to try and do the same right back in their direction.

“So many times we behave in a certain way because we know of nothing else, we have nothing to compare it to,” says Ejiofor. “Some of the studying I did about Jiu-jitsu in regards to some of the philosophies, even if I didn’t do all of the things to nth degree and apply them to my life – and I can’t claim to have suddenly become this Jiu-jitsu guy and I can suddenly sort of float – but what it did do was offer me an alternative; an alternative understanding of ways to behave and ways to react to situations.”

“Whether I chose to do it or not is different but that was something that was very interesting and something that I think is very interesting in this film and extremely interesting to anyone who might go on a similar journey after the film and decides they’re going to find out a little bit more about Jiu-jitsu. If somebody were to become interested in it, I think some the themes this film touches upon are also interesting in the context of how one exists in the world.”

Ejiofor and writer/director David Mamet on the set of Sony Pictures Classics' Redbelt

All this talk of the spiritual side of the sport got me to wondering if Ejiofor’s training for the part ended up being more mental than physical and whether or not the answer to that question came as a surprise to him. “The way into the character was the physical,” he answers. “Understanding the physical was a way of understanding the parameters of this guy. But with the physical come understanding the philosophy that I could begin to understand the nuts and bolts of him and although he has a great code of honor he isn’t kind of saint-like or something.”

“He’s not above it all, he’s not better than everything. Instead it is a way of living a life he feels comfortable with and through learning about Jiu-jitsu and learning about the philosophies of Jiu-jitsu I was able to understand this character’s psychology. And, as you say, I think the psychology of the character is the interesting part about him. The fact that he can fight is sort of interesting, and we’re kind of keen as an audience to see him do that, but it is what would provoke him to [fight] I think is ultimately more engaging.”

Switching gears, the two of start talking about the varied career the actor has been blessed to have since his star-making portrait in Dirt Pretty Things back in 2003. Having never seen him repeat himself in a performance, I ask him about his process in choosing roles which, up until now, has been pretty much impeccable.

“I love stories,” Ejiofor admits candidly. “I think it is something when a story sort of jumps out at me and I get hooked into a narrative. That’s sort of it, then I’m very keen to pursue it and see where it goes because I find that the stories that engage me on the page are the [ones] which will usually engage me on the screen. Within that, it’s great to find good characters, but then that’s sort of hand-in-hand.”

“A good story has good characters, and in a sense it has always been the narrative to me and that’s been the exciting part of all the work that I have done. I feel the films that I have done have good stories, and I feel that people watching them are, like I was when I read them, engaged and enjoying themselves.”

Ejiofor and Audrey Tautou in Miramax Films' Dirty Pretty Things

But not all actors get the opportunity to pick and choose their parts to quite the extent Ejiofor has been able to. Does he then feel lucky he’s been able to work both inside and out of the Hollywood machine without as-to-now being even remotely typecast?

“I feel very fortunate,” he says without hesitation. “Very lucky indeed. It’s been a real remarkable period of time for me and it’s been very exciting. A lot of the times I’ve worked with directors that I’ve admired for a very long time and felt were really remarkable and felt very fortunate to be involved in the same project. It’s been really something, I must say.”

Something indeed, the list of filmmakers the man has worked with almost a who’s-who of talented originals the likes of which most actors would sell their souls to be a part of. Spielberg, Lee, Scorsese, Frears, Curtis, Whedon, Cuarón, Lemmons, Allen, Scott; it’s an impressive group, and I just can’t help asking where he feels Mamet ranks amongst that group.

“I admit, when they’re all in a line like that I can’t help but think to myself it’s a little bit crazy,” Ejiofor laughs before quickly regaining his composure. “But Mamet is right up there. He really is. Working with him was just a great experience. There is sort of a sense of excitement, a real genuine excitement and expectation, which goes with working with directors and writers of a certain level. Mamet was somebody who just didn’t disappoint at all. Every aspect of this film was just incredibly thought through and put together, and there was no doubt that the energy for [him] just seeps into the bigger wider picture.”

“To see Robert Elswit, who shot this picture and won the Academy Award this year for There Will Be Blood, make things look so amazing almost effortlessly and seeing Tim Allen give this incredibly nuanced performance against what so many perceive as his ‘type,’ and to see this casting of Alice Braga and Emily Mortimer and even some of the fighter guys like John Machado, and then looking at the old people who have worked with Mamet for a long time like Joe Mantegna and Rebecca Pidgeon and Ricky Jay and David Paymer, it’s amazing the control he has while bringing all this together.”

Tim Allen and Ejiofor make nice in Sony Pictures Classics' Redbelt

“All of it has one commonality and it is you can’t take your eyes off any of them while they’re up there on-screen. Try not looking at Mantegna or Jay or Paymer or Mortimer while they’re [performing], it’s impossible, and Mamet is the one who orchestrates all of that. It’s just sort of indicative of the kind of draw that David has that he can pull all these people together, cast and crew, to tell this story and it be so rewarding and enriching for everybody involved. It’s a real testament to who I think is just a terrific writer and director.”

With all that said, it goes a bit without saying that Redbelt isn’t your typical homogenized Hollywood entertainment that usually takes up space inside the local multiplex and Ejiofor has no illusions that every audience member is going to walk away as enthused about the project as he ultimately is. What he is certain of is that watching films like this one create a much-needed dialogue and get people to think, and just the thought of that can’t help but make the actor break out in a grin as big as the Puget Sound.

“As a film, any film for that matter, but as a film this doesn’t need to be perfect,” he says without hesitation. “While I think it works as a project and I really like it, in many ways people’s opinions about it are as important as anything else. It’s good that people talk about it. It’s good that it provokes discussion. That’s what great art; films, plays, literature, what have you; is supposed to do, and I think it would be just brilliant if this one could manage that very thing.”

Additional Links:

-  Redbelt Theatrical Review by Sara Michelle Fetters
-  Redbelt Theatrical Trailer