Fassbender, Ejiofor talk about ‘12 Years a Slave'

The new film "12 Years a Slave," about slavery in America's pre-Civil War South, is peppered with great actors in small parts. Paul Giamatti plays a ruthless slave trader, Benedict Cumberbatch is a benevolent plantation owner, Paul Dano is a cruel plantation foreman, Alfre Woodard is a former slave-turned-free mistress, Brad Pitt is an abolitionist. But the film centers on, and gives most of its best scenes to, Chiwetel Ejiofor ("Kinky Boots," "Inside Man") as Solomon Northup, a free man in New York who was kidnapped and made a slave somewhere in the Deep South, and to Michael Fassbender ("Hunger," "Shame") as Edwin Epps, the tyrannical owner of the cotton plantation that became Northup's home. Ejiofor and Fassbender spoke about the film recently at the Toronto International Film Festival.

There's a lot of physical brutality, along with really nasty dialogue. Was there any talk before filming on how to trust one another in acting out such difficult material?

Fassbender: There was a lot of love on-set. We were provoking each other, challenging each other, but at the end of it all, supporting one another, looking after one another. [Director] Steve McQueen created a very trusting environment, a very safe environment in which to create. We did complete takes of scenes, and when that's happening it's like music. There are rhythms there. You have to dance with your fellow players. If the rhythm's out, you feel it and you see it. But if it's in sync, then something special happens. You surprise yourself and go to places that you didn't imagine. If one of us wasn't committing to the other, then something drops. Something falls apart.

Ejiofor: It's the sort of story that requires a hundred percent commitment from everybody involved. I wouldn't be able to do the job of my work in the film if other people weren't doing theirs. So we have to support each other in that way. We have to work together. And like Michael said, it's a historical narrative. It's a first-person, primary source. It's a gift from the past, to open a discussion, not about race particularly, but about human dignity and our freedoms. The only way to really open that discussion is to see all sides of it. To not show what Solomon went through as explicitly as we can would be a disservice to him and his journey.

Edwin Epps is a horrifying character who shows moments of tenderness.

Fassbender: He was kind of a tragic character. He was in love with [his slave] Patsey but couldn't process that love, and didn't know what to do with it. I thought he was sort of a culmination of the ugliness of that time in the slave trade. He's like a boil on the skin of society at the time. But I see him as a victim, as well. Looking at him like that, and trying to find the human being helps you avoid becoming the clichéd evil slave owner or land owner. It was important to find the human being so that audience members, even as horrendous as he is at times, will recognize things in him, which makes it more effective.

Throughout it all, Solomon keeps going through phases of hopefulness and hopelessness.

Ejiofor: It's a fight for his soul. It's a war for his mind, for his spirit, for his heart. It's a silent war, in a way, but a war nonetheless. There are moments where he thinks he can win, and that's almost as harrowing, because hope is complicated. And certainly in that scenario, hope is a double-edged sword. But to abandon hope is to lose his mind.

Ed Symkus covers movies for More Content Now.