Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Wednesday 11 april 2018
Chiwetel Ejiofor explores faith's costs in 'Come Sunday'

Ejiofor, who has played
everything from Mordo in
"Doctor Strange" to an as-
tronaut in "The Martian,"
spent time getting to know
Pearson during a visit to Tul-
sa, flying there right after his
work on "Mary Magdalene"
was finished. "That plane
ride was 2,000 years," he
jokes. "It was a good way
of embracing both the start
and the contemporary ver-
sions of the same principles.
It was kind of eye-opening."
Director Joshua Marston,
who wrote and directed
"Maria Full of Grace," says
he knew Ejiofor would be
perfect in the role before
filming even began when
the actor appeared on the
set dressed in Pearson's suit,
jewelry and shoes.
"He was reciting dialogue
from sermons in the script
that he already had be-
gun to commit to memory
and was already inhabit-
ing the character," Mar-
ston says. "That was the
This image released by Netflix shows Chiwetel Ejiofor in a scene from "Come Sunday," debuting on April 13.
Associated Press moment where I and the
cinematographer and the
By MARK KENNEDY riod and the Beatles went through his religious period. as hell. The implications are whole crew's jaw dropped
AP Entertainment Writer through a psychedelic The Oscar-nominated star shuddering for that branch because it felt like suddenly
NEW YORK (AP) — If Pablo phase, then Chiwetel of "12 Years a Slave" has of faith: Without hell, every- the character was coming
Picasso had a blue pe- Ejiofor is currently going gone from playing Peter one is saved, regardless of to life."
the apostle in the upcom- belief or behavior. There's The final film is melancholy
ing biblical drama "Mary no need to go to church at and moody, often captur-
Magdalene" to playing a all. ing the actors in stillness
contemporary Pentecostal "Whether or not somebody and deep reflection. It's
pastor in the midst of a reli- individually believes in hell an adult movie about big
gious crisis in the Netflix dra- or doesn't is just a simple ideas that's not interested
ma "Come Sunday." Could personal decision of lim- in pandering or ridiculing
this be pure coincidence? ited consequence to the religious audiences.
"Who knows? Perhaps," the outside world. Obviously it's "I think that it's important to
British actor says, laugh- important to that person. find various different ways
ing. "Certainly I have been But if you're a preacher of talking about religion
having to engage very, and you're preaching that and talking about spiritu-
very heavily with faith and there's no hell, well, that's a ality, talking about faith or
religion and Christian faith, very, very different thing," talking about connection,
specifically." Ejiofor says. "It's heresy." which don't either seem
The back-to-back religious- Viewers watch the an- overly pious nor do they
themed projects have left guish that Pearson endure, seem dismissive," says Ejio-
the actor — raised a Ro- caught between church for.
man Catholic, who drifted doctrine and his own be- "I think we can be in dan-
from the church in his teens liefs. The bulk of his flock ger of not understanding
— with a new perspective leave and he is forced to each other because we're
on faith. downsize his life. Ejiofor not connected to these
"Honestly, I had very lim- compares Pearson's jour- very, very strong religious
ited engagement with it ney to that of a Shake- and philosophical links in
when I was growing up. But spearean tragedy and the way that we think."q
it's been really powerful to commends the preacher
reconnect," he says. "Inevi- for "a very certain, very
tably, you see faith differ- specific kind of bravery."
ently." "It was just a very power-
In "Come Sunday," Ejiofor ful push and pull, a very
explores the fall from grace powerful sort of torment,"
of renowned Oklahoma he says. "That was what the
evangelical Carlton Pear- story represented to me —
son, who comes to believe a man finding out how to
that there is no such thing think differently."