On the flip side

Chiwetel Ejiofor grapples with the way of the peaceful warrior in Redbelt.

“Oh, shit! Look at that!”

Moments before the Park Regency’s waiter brought out his meal, Chiwetel Ejiofor had been discussing the physics of jujitsu in a normal tone, almost sotto voce. Calmness and steadiness have been this 33-year-old Brit’s stock-in-trade since he first attracted notice in Stephen Frears’s Dirty Pretty Things (2002); the one consistent element in Ejiofor’s growing filmography is that his police detectives, interstellar assassins and radio-station managers all keep an even keel regardless of what’s going on. But when the “snack” the actor ordered turns out to be a mammoth slab of salmon that would give the crew of the Orca pause, the shocked star accidentally utters a loud obscenity and exchanges a genuine look of panic with the server. Then, his composure already shattered, Ejiofor simply cracks up, smiles and digs in.

Maintaining discipline is a major factor in David Mamet’s latest film, Redbelt, in which the actor plays Mike Terry, a legend in L.A.’s insular world of martial arts. A jujitsu instructor who can barely make ends meet, Terry lives by a near-monastic code that values self-control; he steadfastly refuses to train fighters for the lucrative tournament circuit, much less stoop to participate in these vulgar events. This being a Mamet movie, of course, an elaborate con comes into play, and Terry finds himself trying to negotiate a no-win situation with as little collateral damage as possible.

“It’s a big question when you’re an actor,” Ejiofor says. “How much are you willing to concede in terms of purity? But obviously, it doesn’t just apply to artists. Everybody deals with the notion of ethics on a daily basis. I never felt that David wrote a story about fighting; it’s about how far do you bend and yet still feel like you’re not losing your honor?”

Ask the martial-arts newbie how “honorable” he felt after enduring two months of intense training, and Ejiofor lets out a boisterous laugh. “Oh, it was humbling and grueling,” he says. “Imagine being at the bottom of this huge mountain, and you’re constantly checking your watch to make sure you have enough time to scale it. Once, I was grappling with an instructor and tried to cleverly switch something up. He had to think about what new countermove to throw at me—it was just for a split second, mind you. But I thought, If I can momentarily throw this black belt off his game, then maybe I can pull off looking like I know what the hell I’m doing. That was my big victory moment.”

Even though Ejiofor was worried that he’d embarrass himself, the film’s director (a jujitsu student for the past five years) had confidence in his star’s ability to morph into a fighting machine. “I’d only seen Chiwetel in Dirty Pretty Things when our mutual agent suggested him,” Mamet recalls by phone. “I said, ‘Well, I need someone who can play an American; this guy is from Nigeria, right?’ And my agent told me, ‘No, David. Check out Kinky Boots.’ ” There’s a pause that can only be described as Mametesque. “I could not believe it was the same guy playing a spectacular drag queen; I said, ‘Anybody who can do those two things, I should fall down and thank God he wants to do my movie.’ I’d compare Chiwetel to Henry Fonda and Jean Gabin, in terms of his stillness and the truth he brings to any scene. When he’s acting, there just ain’t no lie in him.”

Given the level of intense commitment displayed in Ejiofor’s performance in Redbelt—and indeed, in the majority of the prolific actor’s work to date—it’s tempting to assume he shares Terry’s ascetic devotion to his work, be it perfecting a move or crafting a character. Though Ejiofor is flattered by the suggestion, he’s quick to debunk any similarity. “You have to take what you do seriously,” he says, choosing his words carefully. “But is there a philosophy or an activity that you can maintain a devoted, untainted relationship with no matter what? I can’t think of one thing that fits that description. I don’t want to seem cynical, but you have to be realistic. Terry thinks he can flip between commerce and never having to compromise his samurai ideals at all.” He pushes his empty plate away. “That’s not the world we live in.”

---

• 
•