I recently had a chance to sit down with Chiwetel Ejiofor who stars in this weekend's Redbelt, a story about a man and his Brazilian Jujitsu code of honor. The film was directed by David Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross), but he's just one of the luminaries Ejiofor has worked with -- his resume also includes projects Spike Lee, Joss Whedon, Alfonso Cuaron, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, and Woody Allen.

Impressive, eh? Here's what he had to say:

Laremy Legel: How is your Jujitsu these days?

Chiwetel Ejiofor: It's slipping, I gotta tell you. There's still a couple of moves in there but it's not quite what it was. I did a few months of pretty intensive training ... it's like learning a language. You've got to have all the words down, the physical moves. Once you know the moves and have some stamina then you have your dictionary. Then it becomes a sense of how to speak the language. If you live a certain kind of life you're living the life of a Jujitsu practitioner. Hickson Gracie used to say that if someone came wanted to fight him who was a rock he could use Jujitsu to become water and they couldn't fight him.

LL: What's the difference between Brazilian Jujitsu and regular Jujitsu?

CE: It's just an advancement of the form. Jujitsu is Japanese in its extraction where Brazilian is Carlos Gracie near the beginning of the 20th century was able to introduce into Jujitsu these other elements. That developed through his family and his extended family into a unique style.

LL: You seem to work with the most incredible people. How do you pull that off?

CE: I don't know what to put that down to. It's just luck. In many ways I've just been incredibly fortunate to work with the people I have. If I was to draw up a list it would probably end up looking like the list I've worked with.

LL: So do you just place your faith in a certain level of director?

CE: It's not a blind signature, but you're pretty much aware that it's fairly unlikely that you're going to read the story and think "What a pile of ... " So, you read it and you think, "Ah, I can see why Spielberg might want to do this picture." (Ejoifor appeared in Spielberg's Amistad.) So that's the way it rolls around.

LL: You've done plenty in the way of stage acting too; do you think you'll continue doing both stage and studio productions?

CE: I think I want to keep doing both. I hit a wall where I have to work in the theatre. It's not even a choice. I have to stop what I'm doing and get on stage. It's part of my genetic makeup, it's that sort of feeling for me.

LL: Is television an option for you too?

CE: It's complicated because the contracts are very long. One could feel that it could be stifling. As someone who hasn't done a lot I have all these opinions (laughs). I have a slight fear of it. It just hasn't been something that has come up in a way I've been arrested by which isn't to say it's not right around the corner.

LL: So who is left out there that you still want to work with?

CE: There's loads of people. Too many to mention. It's funny because with this film I had always been a huge fan of David Mamet's work (Note: Chiwetel was in a Mamet stage play called Duck Variations in one of his first roles), but if you'd asked me the same question I probably wouldn't have mentioned him two years ago. Only because it wouldn't have even occurred to me. But as soon as the script is on the desk you're like "DAVID MAMET, ARE YOU SERIOUS??" So it's hard to say. Same with Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men). There are hundreds of people out there who would be excellent to work with.

LL: So what else is coming up for you?

CE: I'm doing this film about the end of Apartheid that Peter Travis is directing. We're getting geared up and about to get started. It's exciting to turn the spotlight on. We tend to live in a world where things don't work. But here in an extraordinarily brutal regime you had two groups who just loathed each other through some brilliant negotiations were able to unlock freedom and democracy. It's interesting that we don't really think of Apartheid anymore but it was in our recent history.

And with that our time was up! Redbelt expands to 1300 theaters nationwide today!

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