-Welcome. -Thank you.
Welcome to the-- I'm such a big fan of your work.
-Thank you. I mean... -Uh, I mean, you-you've had 20 years
of acting on stage and on film.
I've loved everything you've done.
And this is a new chapter in your life.
-This is your debut in directing. -Yeah, that's right.
-Congratulations. -Thank you so much. Thank you.
(cheers and applause)
Thank you.
Let me-- Let me ask you th-- Is it difficult to direct a film
that you are also acting in?
-It is a little complicated, yeah. -Yes, I can imagine.
"Cut me. Let me try that again.
-I was great. -(laughs) Yeah, exactly
"How was that for you? That was pretty good.
How was it for you? Not bad. Okay. Let's..."
Yeah. Um, you know,
-I was always worried about that. -Right.
That was the one thing that I was really kind of stuck on
as I was going through the process,
and just to see how I would respond, you know, on the floor.
You know, and I think the main thing is is just preparation.
-Right. -You know, it's just preparing.
I had a great team of, uh, you know,
heads of department, working with me.
Dick Pope, an amazing cinematographer;
Valerio Bonelli, an editor and, uh, who's terrific;
Tulé Peak, production designer.
So just working with that kind of caliber of person, you know,
you feel that you have the space
to kind of give it a go, you know.
And you, you definitely did give it a go.
I mean, it's a beautiful film that is based on a true story.
-Yeah. -It's an amazing film.
It's set in Malawi, and, um,
you actually bought the film rights to this book
after, uh, after you-you read the book.
-Yeah. -You read the book, and you were like,
"I need to make this into a film."
What did you love about the story?
I loved-- The first thing that I loved was its optimism,
you know, its hopefulness.
You know, the story centers on William Kamkwamba,
when he's 13 years old, in Malawi,
and, um, you know, his-his community
is going through a famine, essentially,
that's brought on by intense flooding and than a drought.
So they-- and the government has turned their back on them,
the price of grain's through the roof,
and, um, you know, and they're in a massive shortfall
for their grain harvest.
So he's taken out of school.
Secondary school isn't free in Malawi.
He starts sneaking back in to the school,
he ends up sneaking into the, into the library,
and he finds a book called Using Energy--
an American textbook-- and on the front of it
-is a windmill, a picture of a windmill. -Right.
And so he starts using anything he can find,
just any of the-- just scrap metal--
anything he can clump together, and the book, you know,
for the science and technology part of it,
to try and build a wind turbine
that will, you know, irrigate the land,
-that will, you know, generate electricity
-to irrigate the land, and I was... -Right.
I mean, what's powerful about this
is on it's own, that seems like an amazing story.
And then you find out this happened in real life.
You find out that William was a real boy.
You find out that William genuinely snuck into school,
-which is mind-blowing. -(chuckles) Yeah.
I mean, snuck into school to learn.
I mean, I can't imagine myself, like, sneaking in
-to, like, double English or math or anything. -Yeah.
But-but this was... this was what inspired him.
And then he goes on to save his village,
you know, learning about sustainable ways
-to get water for his people. -And that was the moment
that really changed everything for me in the book, as well,
is thinking of what my relationship to school was
-when I was 13. -Right.
You know, whether it was conceivable
that I would be trying to, you know, sneak past teachers
-to get into the math class. -Yeah.
You know, and just realizing, no, it's not conceivable.
And that, the privilege of that, of my dynamic,
you know, understanding the situation of this boy
and thinking, "That would be an amazing story
to try and get out there."
You know, what the circumstances and this kind of...
You know, him living in the solution, basically.
Him trying to organize and find the solutions
to the problems that he's facing
and the challenges that he's facing
in this really positive way.
What I really enjoyed about the film, as well,
is that many people shoot films in areas that are different
to where the story actually took place.
It's oftentimes easier.
But you chose to film in Malawi, where the story takes place.
Um, I think you found, like, the places
where William actually grew up.
You know, the-the school, the house where he lived,
the same world that he was in.
And what was honestly the most impressive--
and we saw it a little bit in the film--
is that you learned one of the Malawian languages.
-I think it's Chichewa. -Yeah, yeah. Chichewa, yeah.
You-you learned a new language for the film.
-Yeah. -And you act in the language.
-Yeah. -(laughter)
Was...
-(cheering and applause) -I mean, this is... Yeah.
There's-there's authentic, and then there's authentic.
I mean, this... Like, you really respected
and wanted Malawi to be front and center in this.
Why was that important for you,
and what do you think it added to the film?
Well, you know, first of all,
I wanted the film to feel incredibly authentic,
to feel like, um, a sort of teleportation experience.
I wanted to take the audience into this space.
You know, Alice in Wonderland,
down the rabbit hole, here we are in this whole...
And I wanted to tell the film from the point of view
of the people who experienced it, you know.
-Right. -I really felt at first,
you know, we often see these films,
and we sort of step outside them.
We often film films like it.
You know, they're telling the story of these hardships
or struggles or, um, you know,
these kind of difficulties and challenges,
and we're outside of that perspective.
But what would it be like to take an audience
-inside that perspective? -Yes.
You know, to invite an audience into the private spaces
of people and their lives
when they're undergoing these kind of...
these highly stressful, difficult situations
but finding a way... a way through.
So, I felt like a way to do that
was to just kind of embrace the authenticity,
to go right into Malawi,
to be in all of the actual locations,
but also to learn Chichewa,
to, you know, to try and really encapsulate their experience
and tell the story from their perspective.
Let me ask you this. You-You're creating this film.
You're telling this story. You have this community.
You have this vision for what you're trying to achieve.
There's something very specific that you did in the film,
and that is you used subtitles throughout.
You also have the people playing between languages.
There are moments where people are speaking in English,
and then they switch into Chichewa,
and then they come back into English,
which, for anyone who speaks multiple languages,
is one of the most authentic ways to speak a language.
That's not an easy thing to do,
and I can imagine some people would doubt it
and be like, "Hey, why don't they just all speak English?
"Like, Somali pirate-type vibes.
You know, why are they switching?"
'Cause it's a lot easier to do.
But-but you had to make that choice. Why?
-For the-- for the authenticity, really. -Right.
For that sense of really being-being in
and of that-- of that place.
And-and that was one of the things I loved.
When you're in-- when you're in Malawi, that's what happens.
You know, people speak English in certain circumstances.
-Yes, yes. -They might speak English at school.
They might speak English in, uh, places of work
or speaking to members of a different tribe,
-obviously, where the language isn't common. -Right, right.
So that all happens.
And then people at home, in their intimate communities,
in their family dynamics are speaking Chichewa.
But sometimes, especially with younger people,
that slips into a little bit of English and then into Chichewa.
And I just wanted to capture a bit of that,
because that felt very authentic to me.
It felt very real to me. I think it happens all over the world,
-by the way. You know, people do that. -Right, right, right.
And people in the UK, you know,
if-if their families are from Europe somewhere-
Italy, Spain, France-- you know, people do that at home
and then they speak in different languages.
And so people really related to that sort of bilingual capacity
to the film, and, um, you know,
it's what allowed me to introduce
that kind of authentic element to the storytelling.
You-you have an amazing story that you've told.
Um, it's a fantastic debut.
And I was really fascinated
and-and pleasantly surprised to find out
-that William is still going. -Oh, yeah.
He's still in energy. He is now a grown man.
I think he works between one of the Carolinas and...
-Yeah, North Carolina. -North Carolina and still Malawi.
-Yeah. -Has he seen the film?
He has, yeah. I mean, you know,
he's seen it a couple of times now.
And he's really excited by it.
I mean, he has a kind of--
You know, it does take him back into a--
into a, you know, traumatic time of his-- of his young life.
And even though it has all this energy and hopefulness
and positivity and he himself has all of those things,
you know, it is that kind of a balance,
of remembering this very stressful,
you know, difficult time.
But, um-- but the resolution to that
is-is profound and-and positive, you know.
So, um, you know, he's a wonderful guy.
He has this-- He's building an innovation center now
-in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, -Yes.
and it's really about empowering young people to i--
you know, to identify the problems that they have
in the-- in their communities
and find ways of solving those problems themselves,
with the help of a wider community.
You know, and that is very empowering.
It's very strengthening.
It's really what his legacy
and his journey is and what he did
in these extraordinary circumstances.
And, you know, like, I say, it's about--
it's about living in the solution.
I think we all have a lot to learn
-from the William Kamkwambas of this world, -Definitely.
you know, especially in the face of, you know, climate change,
things like this. It's what put this community
under so much stress in the first place, you know.
So, um, you know, he's a wonderful man.
It's a wonderful story that you've told.
Uh, fantastic job acting in it, as always.
And congratulations. Uh, I think we're gonna be seeing
-a lot of you behind the camera, my friend. -Thank you.
Thank you for being on the show.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
premieres in select theaters and on Netflix March 1.
Chiwetel Ejiofor, everybody.