\n<\/p>\n
Chiwetel Ejiofor went to see \u201cBridget Jones\u2019s Diary\u201d back in 2001, fully expecting to be bombarded by female energy.<\/p>\n
Instead, he left the theater stunned by how much he related to her, he said: \u201cfeeling all of that chaos and a little bit out of step with the world but somehow with optimism and hopefulness and a sort of fake-it-till-you-make-it spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n
So when the director Michael Morris asked him to discuss \u201cBridget Jones: Mad About the Boy,\u201d the franchise\u2019s latest installment, over tea in London, Ejiofor didn\u2019t have to fake anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved the whole world of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
This time around, Ren\u00e9e Zellweger\u2019s Bridget is a widowed mother of two, and Ejiofor is Mr. Wallaker, her son\u2019s science teacher and a potential love interest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Not that he would dare attempt to replace Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) and Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). \u201cThey\u2019re iconic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But portraying a distinct character at a different, perhaps more challenging time in Bridget\u2019s life \u201cmade it incredibly fun to play,\u201d he said \u2014 if occasionally poignant. \u201cYou can\u2019t hold onto your 30-something self obviously, but if you still maintain a bit of that quality, it assists you in navigating these waters.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a video call from Amsterdam, Ejiofor explained how the works of John Coltrane and Shakespeare changed his life, and why he\u2019s still mad about London.<\/p>\n
These are edited excerpts from the conversation.<\/p>\n
I remember hearing \u201cA Love Supreme\u201d for the first time as an early teenager and being aware that I was in the presence of something hard to describe. To really give a love letter to the human spiritual experience and to do it successfully is so profoundly meaningful to me. It feels like it\u2019s only possible to really achieve something like that with the level of dedication and the obsession that he had with practicing, with just being totally ruled by this instrument.<\/p>\n
I was born in East London but we moved south when I was very young, so Crystal Palace was the first local team that I really got to know. I think Crystal Palace fans love the fact that we\u2019re always slightly the underdog. You don\u2019t mind having a difficult season as long as it ends up OK.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
There was a time that I started to go down to the British Library without a plan, and it ended up being some of the most fascinating adventures of my life. You\u2019d open up this huge database and see where it takes you. And then these tomes would arrive, these ancient books. Some of them hadn\u2019t been opened for god knows how long, the dust still coming off them.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve always had a connection to Impressionism. Who doesn\u2019t love to look at these paintings? But there\u2019s something about C\u00e9zanne that always took me further than anybody else. Because I think without artifice, he places you as a viewer. You are in the painting. Your eye is his eye.<\/p>\n
Having walked the streets of London for 40-something years and found so much camaraderie, so much joy, and to never be bored of it \u2014 I\u2019ve spent time away but always returned to London feeling like it has something to say to me.<\/p>\n
I purchased a Dutch barge many years ago, and now it sits in a marina just by the Thames. Being a Cancerian, I always had this real love of water. When I was traveling a lot, and I didn\u2019t really have a permanent place in London, I lived on the barge, and it was brilliant.<\/p>\n
As a piece of music, it\u2019s extraordinary. As a political statement, it\u2019s extraordinary. The song \u201cGraceland\u201d is among the most beautiful sounds and the most harmonious combining of musical traditions in a way that celebrates Africa.<\/p>\n
It was the first time that I ever understood that being an actor was a thing that people did. The way Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn engaged with each other, the way they fell in love. There\u2019s a magical quality to these two.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Nigeria has such a rich tradition of writers of achievement and of beauty \u2014 Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka<\/a>, Ben Okri<\/a> \u2014 so I was always excited about Chimamanda. When I read \u201cHalf of a Yellow Sun<\/a>,\u201d it was profoundly important to hear somebody talk about our parents and our grandparents and our lives with this kind of richness and poetry. I was thrilled to be in the film<\/a>.<\/p>\n It ultimately revolutionized the path of my life. A sense of this person speaking to me at a time when it\u2019s incredibly meaningful to hear voices, to hear any kind of guidance, really. \u201cHenry IV\u201d represents this idea of not knowing whether you\u2019re going to amount to anything, of not having any road map for how to live your life. But that a sense of achievement and self-love is in your future somewhere, even if you haven\u2019t attained it yet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u2018Henry IV, Part 1\u2019 by Shakespeare<\/span><\/h3>\n