Playing an alien on a TV show is a pretty blank slate — unless you personally know one, you have nothing really to base your character off. But such a role might be closer to home than you think.
As The Man Who Fell to Earth star Chiwetel Ejiofor spoke to Stephen Colbert on The Late Show about finding one’s “inner alien” and exploring themes and feelings of alienation on multiple personal levels.
“How do you prepare as an actor to play a person who has no knowledge of human existence? How do you get the backstory on a literal alien?” asked Colbert.
“Obviously you can’t base it on anything in a way,” said Ejiofor. “You can only play your own alien, so you’ve got to find your inner alien.”
“I can imagine some times in my life when I felt like an alien. Have you felt like an alien?” asked Colbert.
“I think everybody has, everybody’s had those moments when you feel like you’re on the outside, looking into a circumstance,” said Ejiofor. “Those can be large issues. My family emigrated to the UK from Nigeria so in that context, one can very easily understand the ideas of being alien and finding your feet in a new place.
“But I think it’s down to like, the first day at school. We all have these experiences where we’ve felt this way and for me, trying to play this part was really just to look at all of those experiences, understand them internally, and then just try and be free with it, just try and really play what those emotions might lead to.”
The Man Who Fell to Earth is now streaming on Showtime.