WITH the latest nomination for two Golden Globes; best actor in a motion picture for 12 Years a slave and best actor in a mini-series for BBC drama, Dancing on the Edge, British born 36-year-old Nigerian actor, Chiwetel Ejiofor appears to be on his way to joining Hollywood elites.
The multiple award winner, Chiwetel, the son of Nigerian parents Arinze and Obiajulu who settled in east London as students before heading to Camberwell in the 60s, after fleeing the Biafran war, is about being rewarded for his years of hard work and consistency.
Ejiofor played the lead role as Solomon Northup in 12 Years a slave , a film directed by Steve McQueen, where his performance confirmed him the star he's always been, thereby tipping him as winner of this year's best actor.
The young Ejiofor started acting at school, doing his first play when he was 15; having won a place at one of the UK's most prestigious top acting schools, Lamda, but quit when Spielberg called.
Though, he started early, and with a lifestyle that made him comfortable both at home in London and Los Angeles, Ejiofor's progress was not initially recognised. He had to go back to theatre for his next leg-up, playing a psychiatric patient in Blue/Orange, Joe Penhall's award-winning play that premiered at the National Theatre in 2000. Two years later he caused theatre-world ripples after being cast by Grandage in The Vortex, Noël Coward's sex-and-drugs social comedy, playing a role Coward wrote for himself.
Having had a successful stage career as an actor due to how much he perfectly interprets his role, which is most evident in his latest film 12 Years a Slave, where he played the lead role, Ejiofor has apparently proved himself as a top actor.
Ejiofor's first major movie role as an actor was in AMISTAD, a film directed by Steven Spielberg. He played Peter in LOVE ACTUALLY; the husband of Keira Knightley's character, Juliet.
He was also, 'The Operative' in Joss Whedon's SERENITY, and masterfully did many of his own stunts for the film too. Chiwetel starred in Tom Hooper's directorial debut: RED DUST.
His performance in the Stephen Frears-directed Dirty Pretty Things where he played an illegal immigrant who was entangled in an organ-transplant scam however, put him on the map in his parallel cinema career, earned him admiration, but not a star status.
He also starred in Half of a Yellow Sun, the film adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Orange prize-winning novel about the Biafran civil war in Nigeria.
He also directed two short films, known as SLAPPER and COLUMBITE TANTALITE,and has become one of Britain's most accomplished actors. Little wonder he was awarded the O.B.E. (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2008 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama.
Nevertheless, his consistency as well as impressive performance on screen since his breakthrough role as a refugee doctor where he starred along side Audrey Tautou in 2002's Dirty Pretty Things has now placed him on the road to joining the global film-acting elite. He has already received scores of year-end critics' awards for 12 Years a Slave, as well as Golden Globe and Bafta nominations which all constitute to reason the industry expects an Oscar nomination for the actor per excellence, this16th day of January.
Also, it is expected that in
six weeks, Ejiofor stands the chance of winning the best actor Academy Award which is a deserving result for the actor who never actively appears to seek the limelight, but described as "... one of the greatest actors of his generation for some time,"
12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen's unflinching depiction of slavery in pre-Civil War America, had been nominated for seven awards, but missed out in the acting, directing, screenplay and music categories, winning the Award for Best Motion Picture- Drama.
The drama which is on the verge of making history is a 2013 British-American epic historical film.
Benevolent master
Adapted from Solomon Northrup's autobiographical tale of his kidnapping into slavery and the dozen years of hell spent before he eventually secured his freedom, "12 Years a Slave" is telling not simply because it explores slavery, but because of how it explores it.
As Northrup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is kidnapped, sold to a nominally "benevolent" master and eventually a more openly cruel, abusive master and tries to secure his freedom, the film reveals itself as one of the first major filmic attempts to explore slavery not as a political institution or as an individualist fantasy-land in which any slave could take on an army of whites if they "wanted" to, but as it was actually experienced to those who endured it.
The film was premiered at
the Telluride Film Festival on August 30, 2013, before screening at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, the New York Film Festival on October 8, and Philadelphia Film Festival on October 19, 2013.
It won the best film drama at the Golden Globes 2014, during a night that also held awards for Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett and Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston. American Hustle took the award for best film (comedy or musical). The awards kick-start the Hollywood awards season, and are seen as the best annual indicator for which films will do well at the Oscars in March.