Chiwetel Ejiofor Quotes

By the time I could have played football, I was already into acting and that's what I wanted to do.

When I discovered acting, I decided that's what I wanted to do above everything else. It was the first time I was passionate about anything.

I came to my mom and told her I wanted to do this[acting].

My parents have basically just taught me the rules of the stage and everything since I was eight.

I went to theatre school for four years and just wanted to do theatre. I had no ambition to be on TV or to be on camera. I just wanted to go to New York or London and be on stage... I did a lot of theatre in Montreal, got involved in TV in Toronto and then moved to L.A. I hope that film and TV will take me back to theatre.

I was a writer first, and knew I'd be a storyteller at age seven. But since my parents are very practical, they urged me to go into a profession that would be far more secure, so I went to medical school.

Of course I wanted an agent from the time I was like 5, but my mother was like, 'No, you're going to be normal, you're going to go to school, you're going to get good grades, you're going to play soccer, and if you do well, if you keep your grades up, you can do one community-theater show a year.'

I've always wanted to act; I just didn't know how to get into it. It kind of just happened. Dance brought me into it.

If you went to Harvard Medical School, chances are you'll be a doctor at some place. There's a career trajectory. Acting, there's nothing. It's constantly trying to procure jobs - it's very disconcerting.

I went on countless auditions. I begged my parents until I finally was allowed to be in a theatrical play when I was 13. It was the most important thing in my life.

I grew up in a family of actors. I grew up onstage. The choice for me wasn't, 'Do I want to be an actor or not?' I always felt like that's just ingrained in you, the need to perform. The choice was, 'Do you want to do this professionally or not?'

I did a show back when I was in high school - so I was about 17 - and it was the first time I was on stage. I never even thought about being an actor before that, but after that experience, I knew it was what I wanted to do.

At 3 years old, I was imitating and doing fun little commercials for the family. Then at 5, I knew, 'OK, this is something I really like.' At 8, I was crying in front of the mirror and my mom was like, 'Oh boy, here we go. We know what she's going to do.'

My mum very much wanted me to go into the theatre.

Maybe in another life I would have liked to have been a dancer. But I was a cheeky chappy who wanted to be an actor.

I think I'd really enjoy doing some more theatre, because that's where I started off.

I was one of those weirdos who, at six years old, was telling everybody that I wanted to be an actor. I saw my sister in a play and realized that I wanted to play make believe in front of people; I was always goofing around and putting on shows for my family.

Post my graduation, I really thought that acting was something I wanted to do. I simply took a chance and started auditioning, and I loved it.

I briefly flirted with the idea of more stable career choices but they never excited me. I know it's a bit of a cliche but I remember doing school plays in primary school and feeling at home on the stage.

I have been involved with theatre since I was 13. I never seriously thought I would get into movies though I had every intention of continuing with theatre.

I think I always knew I was going to somehow be on a stage. I was quite an extrovert, as a child. And I did a lot of music, when I was younger, so I thought I was going to go into music, but I fell into acting, in a really weird way.

I grew up in an acting family. I was heavily discouraged from doing it myself when I was young, which is the only responsible route to take with any child, because it's not necessarily the easiest of lives.

But I think what made me go into theater was seeing my mother onstage. The first thing she did was Mrs. Frank in 'The Diary of Anne Frank.' The second thing she did was a play about Freud called 'The Far Country.' She played a paralyzed woman in Vienna who goes to see Freud.

I never said that I wanted to be an actor when I was a kid. I didn't know. I thought I was going to be a singer and musician. That's what I had been doing, for a huge part of my life.

In elementary and high school, I never considered acting as a profession.