The 2009 movie that made no sense to Chiwetel Ejiofor: “I couldn’t rationalise it at all”
Chiwetel Ejiofor is a truly remarkable actor who can always be guaranteed to give a great performance, even if it’s directed by Roland Emmerich.
His depiction of Solomon Northup made 12 Years a Slave one of the best films to ever win ‘Best Picture’ at the Academy Awards, and at the same time, Ejiofor knows how to chew the scenery if he’s given a role in a cheesy action film like Four Brothers, Triple Nine, The Old Guard, or Venom: The Last Dance.
Of all the directors that Ejiofor has worked with, Emmerich might be the most perplexing. While he will always be known as the man behind Independence Day, one of the greatest blockbusters of the 1990s, he has been directing nothing but completely ridiculous science fiction and disaster films that make the work of Michael Bay look like Andrei Tarkovsky. Emmerich has a lot of films that have very goofy premises, but 2012 might be the silliest.
It’s easy to forget (especially for those who weren’t using the internet 15 years ago) that there was a massive conspiracy theory about a supposed prophecy that predicted that 2012 would be the end of the world.
While it’s little more than an unsubstantiated interpretation of historical materials blown wildly out of proportion by conspiracy theorists and internet trolls, it was enough to inspire a major blockbuster from Emmerich that starred Ejiofor alongside John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Danny Glover, and Woody Harrelson.
Ejiofor might have brought his best efforts to the project, but he admitted to being confused by what exactly Emmerich had in mind, saying, “I can’t even rationalise that side of the script when I first read it. I couldn’t rationalise it at all, and I felt like I just had to leave that up to the director. You know, I couldn’t get my head around it, and I only can equate it to the kind of ‘Cleopatra enters Rome’ idea. You know, that it’s a very small line in the script, but takes 3.5 months to shoot.”
Despite feeling confused by the material, Ejiofor actually had positive things to say about working with Emmerich. “I think he is somebody who can combine these two very rich elements of cinema,” he claimed, “He gives people an incredible cinematic experience and yet is able to hold onto a narrative, really authoritatively and create really special characters. So I’m astounded by him, in many ways.”
2012 might not have been high art, but it was an entertaining disaster film that offered the scope, scale, and severity that viewers were looking for. While it wasn’t surprising that the film was a massive hit, it did indicate that Emmerich’s projects tend to perform better when the actors actually seem to have a grasp on their characters; the failures of Independence Day: Resurgence, White House Down, and Moonfall showed that the director had seemingly lost his touch.
Alternatively, Ejiofor has succeeded by putting faith in directors that he feels have potential. Backrooms was a film that many doubted would be successful because it was directed by a teenager, but the actor delivered a terrific performance that became part of one of the year’s most surprising hits.
