The power of quiet

摘要

A suite at Claridge's Hotel in central London. Thick carpets, thicker curtains. White linen on the tables and a personal waiter in attendance; in a corner of the room a public-relations assistant taking notes. Arranging this interview with Chiwetel Ejiofor has taken 43 e-mails, three months and five changes of date, time and venue. These are the kind of numbers you might expect for a major Hollywood player; Robert De Niro perhaps. It seems Mr Ejiofor, born in London to Nigerian parents, is edging into a new role: that of Britain's first black film star. Now 36, Mr Ejiofor has certainly starred in films, most recently, Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave", the feted account of a free man's captivity on the Louisiana plantations. Before that he shared lead space with, among others, Don Cheadle, an American comedy actor, in "Talk to Me" and Audrey Tautou, a French actress, in Stephen Frears's "Dirty Pretty Things". In an 18-year career, which has included more than 25 feature films, two big-budget British drama series and a fistful of West End stage appearances, he has yet to turn in a duff, or even workaday, performance.