Chiwetel Ejiofor on How the Story Inspired His Exploration of Family Dynamics

The father/son dynamic in Rob Peace was something that drew director and star Chiwetel Ejiofor to the project. That family dynamic remained a guiding light throughout production. The filmmaker told ComicBook that he believed the real-life Rob Peace was treated unfairly by the media. Part of the movie’s aim is to humanize Rob Peace and move beyond the initial way the story was colored by the press. This process began with a book by Jeff Hobbs, on which the movie is based.

During the press tour for Rob Peace, Ejiofor explained that the relationship between Peace and his father, who went to prison for crimes he may not have committed, was key to the story’s appeal and its themes.

“I definitely felt that there’s something very rich about the ties that bind—the relationship that you, in some ways, can’t shake off,” Ejiofor said. “That are tied to your heart, your sense of yourself in the world. One of those in this story for Rob is his relationship with his father. The responsibility of relationships, thematically, was something that I felt was so powerful in the story. Right from reading the book, where do our responsibilities lie? To what extent do our responsibilities lie to our parents, and parents to children, equally. And who decides? That, to me, was so fascinating. Are those decisions affected by any other systemic realities that we face? Are they harder for some people than others? What are the dynamics of those choices, and are there things that we can do to alleviate that or those who struggle with it? I was really engaged with Rob’s story. I thought that in some ways, originally, people wrote about his story and they did so from a slightly unfair perspective, a very unfair perspective, and I think some of that was corrected in Jeff Hobbs’s book, and my journey is trying to continue that.”

Directed, adapted by, and starring Academy Award(R) nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave), Rob Peace follows the true story of a brilliant young man (Jay Will) torn between his father’s shadowed past and his own promising future. Raised by his devoted mother (Academy Award(R) nominee Mary J. Blige, Mudbound), Rob risks everything he has worked for to free his imprisoned father (Ejiofor). The film also stars Camila Cabello and is based on the New York Times bestseller by Jeff Hobbs.

Rob Peace comes to theaters on August 16th.

Source: ComicBook