Chiwetel Ejiofor (American Gangster, Kinky Boots) admits he never imagined he’d be learning the ins and outs of Jiu-Jitsu for a movie, but the prospect of being immersed in the sport was one of the main reasons he wanted to play the role of Mike Terry in David Mamet’s Redbelt. Apart from being able to work with Mamet, the idea of taking on the part of a guy who not only runs an academy but also teaches Jiu-Jitsu caught Ejiofor’s attention.
“It was great to be able to work with some of the best practitioners that there are of Jiu-Jitsu, and to learn about it as a philosophy, to learn about it physically,” said Ejiofor at the film’s Los Angeles press junket. “It was very exciting, very detailed. I felt that I had, because of the connection to the Gracie family and the fact that there were so many Gracie family members involved in my training to a greater or lesser degree, I felt that I had a sense of the panoramic view of its inception, its creation, its philosophy, right up to the present day.”
Ejiofor’s character, Mike Terry, is a Jiu-Jitsu expert who trains police officers and others to be able to handle themselves in difficult physical situations. Although he’s one of the best, Terry has never considered being a part of the prize fighting circuit and doesn’t believe in fighting for financial gain. But a bizarre set of events involving an action movie star (Tim Allen) and crooked fight promoters dramatically alters Terry’s life and forces him into the competitive world he’d always avoided.
A big concern of Ejiofor’s going into the Mamet film was whether he’d be able to realistically portray a Jiu-Jitsu teacher. “You sort of read a script and you’re sort of like, ‘How do I find a way into this character? How do I feel at one with this person?’ And I was worried about it, in the sense that I was concerned that there wouldn’t be enough time and I wouldn’t be able to put the fight sequences together. I wouldn’t be able to convince in this role in a way that was kind of meaningful. But I had a great experience doing Kinky Boots basically, and knowing that with the right amount of effort and work on any kind of character, in any sort of production, you can get to a point whereby there’s a certain sense of connection. That experience informed my decision to just throw myself into it, really, and see what can out the other side.”
Ejiofor was well prepared for the role and came out of the film pretty much unscathed. “I was never hurt or anything. They’re incredibly safe,” said Ejiofor. “In a sense, even though this seems like I’m blowing my own trumpet, I was the most dangerous person because I knew such a small amount of it, yet everything I knew was quite dangerous. What I didn’t know was if you’re practicing something like an arm bar on somebody, you can actually be much smaller than them and inflict a lot of pain. And then if you carry on using the same position or whatever, you can break their arm. You can really hurt them. So the whole thing was about people saying, ‘You’ve got to take it down a bit.’ Because in the fog of war, if you’re trying to shoot the scene and it’s this whole crazy fight, some of the stuff that you’re doing is actually pretty dangerous. And they were very aware of that, so I was very protected. Suddenly I became the one that everybody was very worried about, being the loose cannon. But there’s a responsibility that goes with that and luckily I didn’t injure anybody.”
In the film, the prize fighters must choose a marble from a ceremonial bowl immediately before the fight begins. A white marble means they fight normally; a black marble means they will have to fight with a handicap. The handicap is chosen for them and could be anything from having an arm tied behind their back to the inability to use their hands, or even being forced into the ring blindfolded. “You know that’s a great challenge to be the other guy, the guy who has some sort of situation,” said Ejiofor explaining his take on the marble system. “It’s a training concept, really, in its formation. But in the training contest it’s very useful, as Mike Terry says, because you don’t know when you’re going to not be able to fight with something. You don’t know what the situation is going to entail.”
“But I definitely think that some of the great guys, some of the great practitioners, can use any number of disabilities and be able to fight and be able to inflict serious damage. When I started learning Jiu-Jitsu, there’s just different forms because some people’s floor work, their groundwork, is incredibly good. So actually they don’t use their hands that much and it’s all about locks using the legs. They twist people over, get them into headlocks, all with their legs so if you’re against an opponent like one who just sweeps your legs away and then is on top of you and puts you in a headlock, then the fight’s over. It’s a way of really accentuating other aspects of your fighting capabilities.”
