The New ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Villain: Why Chukwudi Iwuji Is ‘One of the Best Actors’ James Gunn’s Ever Worked With
variety.comChukwudi Iwuji was a kid growing up in Nigeria and Ethiopia, he imagined he could fly. The second youngest of five, he would spend hours on his own, meticulously reenacting scenes he’d seen on TV, playing every part himself.
Virtually all of what captured his imagination were American shows and films from the 1970s and ’80s: “Charlie’s Angels,” “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” “The Godfather” and “E.T.
the Extra-Terrestrial,” via broadcast reruns and bootleg VHS tapes. After he first saw “Star Wars,” he would stare intensely at a plastic cup, willing it to move.
And “Superman,” of course, convinced Iwuji he could leap tall buildings in a single bound. “I would actually run around the compound as fast as I could, hoping to get fast enough to take off,” he says with a wide and wistful grin. “I guess I was always going to be an actor.” Over two decades, Iwuji’s peripatetic career has brought him from the Royal Shakespeare Company in London to Barry Jenkins’ “The Underground Railroad” series for Amazon.
Read more on variety.com