12 February 2016
Newsdesk
Chiwetel Ejiofor was trying to impress his Triple 9 male co-stars with his strength when they first met but was stumped by a tiny bottle of tomato ketchup.
The 38-year-old actor plays Terrell Tompkins in the film, which also stars Aaron Paul, Norman Reedus, Casey Affleck and Woody Harrelson among others. He had to work hard to get into muscular shape for the movie, and was thrilled with the results of his gym sessions... until he fell at the very first hurdle.
"I got down to Atlanta and a lot of us were having this lunch for the first reading and it was all the guys, all the gang - it was tough stuff," Chiwetel said during an interview on Late Late Show with James Corden on Thursday night (11Feb16). "And I'm the gang leader. I didn't know those guys that well at that point so I'm trying to give off that I'm somebody to be respected. Lunch comes in, I had a BLT or something with some fries. And there's this little tiny tomato ketchup bottle. I pick it up, everything's normal, and then I'm like (mimes struggling to open the bottle). I was ripped, I couldn't even put a jacket on, and I couldn't get it open!"
However, Chiwetel still maintains that there was an error in the bottle, insisting: "It must have been some kind of internal flaw!"
Chat show host James then brought out four little bottles of ketchup - one for himself, one for Chiwetel and one each for his other guests Grace Helbig and Jake Lacy.
While James, Grace and Jake managed to open the bottles with no struggle at all, Chiwetel went red-faced as he struggled to open his own one, before James admitted they had glued it shut as a joke.
Chiwetel first shot to worldwide fame thanks to his role in 12 Years a Slave, for which he received an Oscar nomination. Triple 9 is a different vehicle for the actor though, and he worked hard to ensure he had the character down before shooting started.
"It's a cops movie, corrupt cops, and ex military guys and I'm playing one of those guys so I was doing a lot of working out beforehand and really trying to get into the testosterone masculine fuelled mindset," he explained.
