August 19 2010
Why isn't Salt star Chiwetel Ejiofor up there with Russell Crowe?
Guardian film blog writer calls Chiwetel "one of the best British actors of his generation" and laments his use as a "utility player."
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DetectiveYelsew | August 19, 05:23 CET
palehorse | August 19, 06:07 CET
spooforbrains | August 19, 08:26 CET
brinderwalt | August 19, 08:56 CET
Chiwetel Ejiofor is a harder name for an Anglophone to pronounce or remember than Russell Crowe. I'm a good speller and I have to look it up every time. If Chas Edge were the man's stage name, or if he even had a nickname, he'd have a better shot at becoming a household name.
Although we have a few examples of A list black actors who regularly get the lead, I suspect that when a plum role is being cast, the default is often to cast a white actor.
janef | August 19, 08:57 CET
And having recently seen "Salt," I have to back up the main assertion that Ejiofor did a great job but his skills were kinda wasted in that his CIA counter-espionage agent was a role that didn't need super amounts of "POW!" to pull off well.
[ edited by BlueEyedBrigadier on 2010-08-19 19:31 ]
BlueEyedBrigadier | August 19, 09:30 CET
impalergeneral | August 19, 09:58 CET
Relatedly, the article seems slightly contradictory in that it talks about headlining big Hollywood films while at the same time bemoaning the fact that he isn't playing roles that really stretch him. But how many headline roles in big Hollywood films are great acting opportunities ?
Course, I don't know the bloke, could be he's seething with frustration at not playing leads in huge summer movies and he might well be working his bollocks off trying to get those roles but meeting a brick wall (possibly related to his name or the fickleness of Hollywood fame or whatever). I hope not though.
Saje | August 19, 10:36 CET
No need to speculate (one of my personal favorites would be poor Krishna Bhanji - aka Ben Kingsley - who changed his name after being called "Kristina Blange" at an audition for a highschool play.)
And, like Saje said, it could just be he has standards.
WARNING: The preceding comment links to a possibly lethal dose of useless trivia.
brinderwalt | August 19, 11:41 CET
His career looks like he's OK with being a talented utility player, for one. And while he's a great actor, most people are kinda sort of aware that acting ability is not the necessary ingredient for stardom.
I've read a little of Jeanine Basinger's work about the nature of Hollywood stardom (she was Joss's prof. at Wesleyan) and she theorizes that stars are not just talented actors. The biggest stars somehow embody a persona so fully and completely that the audience psychologically responds to them in whatever role they play. And if the persona is something that resonates especially fiercely in that particular time period, they might just become a great star, given the right roles in the right movies.
Think of Bogart. The man was a great actor, but his stardom encompassed more than his acting ability. There were equally fine actors in the past who never could manage to project a persona that the audience believed so fully and that matched the expectations of what people thought about man should be: brave, cynical, experienced, hard-bitten.
dottikin | August 19, 12:53 CET
So while Ejiofor may not be landing roles because of that name, at least he's not sending any wrong messages. (Not that I blame Kingsley in the slightest.)
ManEnoughToAdmitIt | August 19, 13:00 CET
madmolly | August 19, 13:14 CET
Sucks most when audience members (okay, mostly fanboys and cinephiles) have gotten to know an actor by his or her original name, and then they change it mid-career. Like Paul Wasilewski (now Paul "Wesley"), originally probably best known for Wolf Lake and now the lead on Vampire Diaries (he changed it just before getting Vamp Diaries), that one kind of annoyed. Wasilewski isn't even hard to say, plus there're a number of well-known U.S. actors who have Polish surnames and didn't alter them any. He didn't always get great roles pre-name change (he showed up as the possible long-lost brother of Lex Luthor in Season 2 or 3 of Smallville, but they've never mentioned him since and I can't recall if Wolf Lake was all that great, I remember liking at least a couple of the eps), but he seemed like he was getting by on his looks and talent well enough.
Same thing happened with Alexander Siddig (guy who played Bashir on Star Trek: DS9). Although his full birth name would've been way too long to use (Siddig El Tahir El Fadil El Siddig Abderahman Mohammed Ahmed Abdel Karim El Mahdi), and I'm pretty sure most Middle Easterners don't utilize much of their birth names usually anyway, there was nothing wrong with what he had when he was a Trek member (Siddig El Fadil Abderahman, if memory serves). Side note: maybe I was an ignorant kid (plus I think I only watched the first two or three seasons of DS9), but I never realized Bashir (or the actor) was Arab until he started showing up in similar roles in Syriana or as a former/reformed terrorist on Season 6 of 24.
I understand why it happens, for marketability, but even as a white, average English-Canadian, it's disappointing to see so many things get Anglosized and whitewashed.
[ edited by Kris on 2010-08-19 22:25 ]
Kris | August 19, 13:19 CET
Kris, it was just Siddig el Fadil (no Abderahman) on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." :)
Shapenew | August 19, 14:05 CET
Yeah, I enjoyed him as the lead alongside Audrey Tatou in Dirty Pretty Things, in Serenity, in Children of Men as the deceptively nice/helpful (at first) villain, in Redbelt, in 2012 (if nothing else, at least the actors made the most of the material, with Woody Harrelson unsurprisingly kinda stealing the show, even if his character was out early), and in Salt. Don't care if he makes it huge or not.
brinderwalt mentioned that there's something sorta unusual and/or intense about the guy that prevents him from placing Ejiofor in a typical leading man role (I interpret that to mean typical by Hollywood standards, since the guy's more than held his own in leading roles in smaller/limited theatrical release films), and that might prevent most Hollywood casting agents from doing so as well. After looking at pics of the guy on IMDB just now, I think I know--he's got crazy eyes. Not a sleight against him, he's a handsome dude, but yeah, they're intense/scrutinizing.
Kris | August 19, 14:38 CET
...but I never realized Bashir (or the actor) was Arab
He's only half Arab in fact, his mum's English (fun fact: Malcolm McDowall is his uncle !). According to himself BTW, he changed his name because people couldn't pronounce "El Fadil". Am I missing something or is "El Fadil" actually fairly straightforward ("el-fah-deel" surely) ?
Saje | August 19, 22:33 CET
000 | August 19, 23:34 CET
Saje | August 20, 00:55 CET
brinderwalt | August 20, 06:54 CET
Still looking forward to Salt, though. Even if it is a bit trashy, I hear it's the good sort of trashy.
MattK | August 20, 08:27 CET
MattK | August 20, 08:51 CET
zee | August 20, 19:13 CET
Why?
Because he's a terrific actor.
Same deal with Exbwe... er, Ewpklm... um, Enkhag... grr... E-j-i-o-f-o-r. I'd love to see him leading a strong movie. He'd be great, I'd go.
filops | August 21, 07:29 CET