Chiwetel Ejiofor on Rob Peace’s tragic true story

ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Oscar nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor about his second directorial effort, Rob Peace. Ejiofor talked about the film’s tragic true story, its themes, and similarities to his first film as a director. The film will be released exclusively in theaters on August 16, 2024.

“Directed by, adapted from, and starring Oscar nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave), Rob Peace tells the true story of a brilliant young man (Jay Will) torn between his father’s dark past and his own promising future. Raised by his devoted mother (Oscar nominee Mary J. Blige, Mudbound), Rob risks everything he’s worked for to free his imprisoned father (Ejiofor). Also starring: Camila Cabello, and based on the New York Times bestseller by Jeff Hobbs,” the synopsis reads.

Tyler Treese: I know you’re from England, so I was curious to see how you would interpret that, but it struck me as a very American story because we see this bright young guy who goes through a lot of trauma but also gets wonderful opportunities. Then we also see all the problems that come with the American dream and America taking that dream away from him.

Chiwetel Ejiofor: Yes, I think that’s true. I think that’s what happened. I feel like there’s something very universal about Rob’s story as well. I think it’s very specific to the United States. It’s a very specifically American story, but it also speaks to things about social mobility that concern people all over the world. It’s about the dynamics of the family, the responsibility to the family and the responsibility of the family to the individual, and the responsibility of the individual to themselves. I think those things are so fundamentally human and so fundamental to our humanity.

I was particularly struck by Jeff Hobbs’ book about his roommate at Yale, I think. The idea of ​​someone looking at their friend’s life and trying to understand what happened to them in a larger context. Then I was researching Rob’s journey and understanding all of these familial ties that tie together the relationships with family, the relationships with community, the relationships with friends, and what Rob was trying to accomplish in all of those areas. I thought there was really something that connected the experiences maybe in a much smaller key, but because Rob is an extreme version of some of those things, I felt connected to the experiences of so many people around the world.

I heard some of the discussions when the book came out, and TSome people have noticed that Rob had two lives. To one audience he was Shaun and to another he was Rob. But in your film you don’t have that in mind. You see a very complete individual, a very complicated person. So I’d love to hear your thoughts on that. This isn’t a person with two separate lives. It’s just a very complicated person who has also been forced to make some bad decisions.

Yeah, I think I didn’t want to make a film about code-switching because I actually find the term code-switching and what it evokes quite limiting, especially when applied to the black experience. It’s become a term that’s used to describe in shorthand terms some kind of racial dynamic, which I just find trivializing. So I wasn’t interested in that. Rob never portrayed that as far as I could see, so yeah, some people jumped on that. He went to Yale, but he came from this impoverished area. Consequently, it’s a story about those two, and to me that never sounded believable.

The real strength or what I found really interesting about Rob was that he was always himself. That he could combine these two parts of his life, these different and complicated areas. He could wear his durag in the lab and be a Yale student studying molecular biophysics and biochemistry and be accepted in that context, albeit with some difficulty, don’t get me wrong, but generally accepted. He always remained himself and authentic to himself and his experiences, and then he went back to East Orange, back to his friends, back to his community and was himself. You recognize him as someone who goes to Yale but is himself and is always Rob.

I felt like that was true of Rob. It’s authentic to his experience, and that’s actually authentic to a lot of experiences of people who find themselves in these worlds of social mobility. The complications have nothing to do with code-switching. The complications have to do with how you deal with and navigate the different expectations that are placed on you at different points in your life, because of the numerous systemic decisions you have to make and the numerous pressures that are on you. In Rob’s case, it’s a pretty extreme example of all of that, but it still underscores the point that I think a lot of people experience.

You’ve made two films, and they’re about these incredibly gifted and smart black kids who care deeply about their community. This film goes in a much more tragic direction, but what do you like about the DNA that these two films share?

Yeah, I think that’s true. I think that’s what really spoke to me, those two stories about family, about the challenges and, uh, about the responsibilities that individuals find in that dynamic. I think I recognize myself a lot in those stories. In “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” and in “Rob Peace,” I recognize elements of my story. Certainly things that have provoked a deep and emotional response in me. There are things that I’ve considered and I’m thinking about. They’re also things that I think aren’t necessarily portrayed in cinema in the way that I want to talk about them. So I feel like there’s a desire to see stories that capture a fuller experience of people’s lives, particularly in the context of these communities.

I think I was moved by the feeling that Rob in this case was treated very unfairly by the wide media response to the events. I felt that Rob’s story was very judgmental in the way it was reported and judged. I was keen to see what that looked like when you have a much more three-dimensional understanding of his experiences, in the hope that it would lead to a better, more comprehensive kind of ally.