Chiwetel Ejiofor was inspired by the movies of his youth just like the stars of tomorrow will be inspired by the work of his generation.
Ejiofor caught up with Ian de Borja for IMDb’s “Movies That Changed My Life” podcast. The actor highlighted 1948’s “Bicycle Thieves” as one of the works that inspired him.
“I suppose I watched it first when I was quite young and I maybe like on VHS maybe or something or maybe it was even playing,” he recalled. “I saw it years later on Wilshire, on Wilshire Boulevard at the Laemmle Theater.”
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“I just had the most incredible moment, two hours of watching a film that I could remember really,” he continued. “I just was completely transported. And the fact that I was watching it projected and in a cinema watching this film, I think really added to the overall feeling.”
The movie was so transformative that Ejiofor immediately attended a second screening.
“I went out after the film finished and bought another ticket and watched the film again ’cause I was like so, and then a few days later, I took a friend of mine ’cause it was still playing for about a week to come and see the film, who agreed that it was the best film, this is the best film,” he added.
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Ejiofor stars alongside Charlize Theron and KiKi Layne in Netflix’s superhero drama “The Old Guard”.
“‘The Old Guard’ is about a group of mercenaries who are immortal and they don’t really celebrate exactly their immortality,” he shared. “Gina Prince-Bythewood directed it and it’s exciting but it also has kind of a healthy dollop of existential angst, I think, which was exciting to me.”
“The Old Guard” premieres Friday, July 10 on Netflix.
