Chiwetel Ejiofor on the Charisma, Complexity and Connection of ‘Rob Peace’
Chiwetel Ejiofor (left) and costar Jay Will in Rob Peace
Ejiofor’s sophomore directorial feature, ‘Rob Peace’, was a story he believed in so deeply, he wore several hats for the production. Yet Ejiofor will admit, this story is much bigger than him.
The story of ‘Rob Peace’ is certainly a worthy one. Worthy of telling, worthy of the audience’s time, and worthy of the efforts of the creative force behind it. Chiwetel Ejiofor, an established and well respected actor who undoubtedly has his pick in roles, from Oscar worthy power driven performances in 12 Years a Slave, or the mega-monopoly known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe when playing Baron Mordo, has chosen to focus his creative efforts on the story of Rob Peace.
Rob Peace is the captivating and heartbreaking story of Robert Peace (Jay Will), a brilliant young man who grew up in a rough neighborhood in New Jersey. Raised by his devoted mother (Mary J. Blige), this young man with a promising future risks everything he's worked for to free his imprisoned father, Skeet (Ejiofor). Despite his academic success and potential, Robert's life takes a tragic turn as he becomes entangled in the complexities of race, class, and the choices he makes.
Ejiofor chose not only to play Skeet Douglas, a man incarcerated for a crime which many people believe he did not commit, but write and direct the film as well. The strenuous relationship between Skeet and Robert help examine themes of race, family, legacy and what Ejiofor calls a “complex systematic journey” for the main character. In order to find a young man to carry that complexity, carry the film, and essentially be a trusted on-screen partner, Ejiofor turned to Jay Will, who has recently shown just how great an on-screen partner he can be, holding his own with legend Sylvester Stallone in Paramount’s gangster-adjacent television show, Tulsa King.
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Ejiofor reveals that the process of casting was well before Tulsa King, and even before Will had a chance to put a reel together. “First of all, I was really struck by the real warmth and genuine charisma [Jay had]” Ejiofor recalls. “I felt like he had a beautiful instinct for naturalism and being honest about the character, so I found that I was immediately very engaged with them. It very quickly became clear that he was a really brilliant actor and could handle the complexity of this role in a way that I thought was pretty unique. I was thrilled, thrilled to cast him”.
This is obviously extremely high praise for the relative newcomer, Will, from Ejiofor who is the recipient of several accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, a Laurence Olivier Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards. There is no air about the performer that would indicate he knows better than any of his fellow actors, even when wearing his director’s hat, having to helm this complex story.
An icon himself, Ejiofor is quick to throw that designation to his other partner on screen, Mary J. Blige who plays Jackie, Rob’s mother. The unspoken history between Blige and Ejiofor as Jackie and Skeet, is one of the strengths of an already well-performed film. The two performers seem to have an excellent rapport and understanding.
“I really credit her not only for giving this an incredible performance, but also for being so supportive of the process. I felt that she really connected to Jackie” Ejiofor says. “She really connected to the challenges that Jackie faces and the kind of reality of what she is kind of going through”.
Ejiofor clarifies, that if it were not for the understanding of character he got from Will and Blige, the gravity of this true story would be lost. “There was a capacity for Mary to have an enormous amount of depth and affinity with this role. We are dealing with two decades of a family, of a family's experiences, of a family’s incredible highs and devastating lows. So having that kind of [unspoken] shorthand, and having real empathy and engagement, was really important, and Mary had all of those things and was absolutely beautiful in the film”.
Knowing that a lot of the project Ejiofor is choosing to helm relate to a young man attempting to make his community a better place, you begin to understand the director is telling stories about himself in a lot of ways. “I was always fascinated by these intersections between race, education, the criminal justice system and how there are systemic failures” he reveals. “That increased pressure on this brilliant young man, and even though he was charismatic and gregarious, it made a lot of his life more challenging than it needed to be”.
In a similar manner to inventing an unconventional way to save your family and village from famine, like in Ejiofor’s The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, or Rob Peace building homes for his neighborhood, Ejiofor builds his art. The steadfast performances he can garner from his cast is yes, a testament to understanding these characters, but as the interview winds down, it becomes a little more obvious - Films are his ‘windmill’. Films are how he builds shelter for those around him.