Chiwetel Ejiofor makes more "careful choices" now after experiencing the "fragility of life".
The ’12 Years A Slave’ star tragically lost his father in a car crash when Chiwetel was just 11-years-old and he admits it has changed his outlook on life.
He told The Times newspaper’s Weekend supplement: "Once you experience the fragility of life, I think you do make careful choices … I hope he’d be proud. I feel I am trying to have some of the conversations with the world that he was having when he died. On the sleeve of one of his albums he wrote, ‘I wish the world peace and human respect.’ He wasn’t political but he had a deep, humanist side. He was an optimist too. Optimism can be political. I think we can see that today. Young people like William Kamkwamba are optimistic and clever and the older generation sometimes need to step aside."
Chiwetel previously admitted he struggles to understand fame.
He explained: "I don’t know what all of these things mean yet. In terms of stratification, fame, renown, all these things, it’s like an ongoing process of trying to work out what it means. Obviously, I’m aware that people react slightly differently to me. It’s not like people were rude before, and suddenly they’re polite. But yeah, you notice a slight shift, that people are slightly more aware of you – in the street, or whatever … I’m uncomfortable [with] this abstract idea of a weird power that has to do with being not anonymous … I put my pants on one leg at a time, just like I did before I was nominated for an Oscar."
Chiwetel Ejiofor’s careful choices
