The Man Who Fell to Earth: Chiwetel Ejiofor on David Bowie’s Influence and Doctor Strange

In the 1976 science fiction film The Man Who Fell to Earth, David Bowie plays Thomas Newton, an alien from the drought-stricken planet of Althea who journeys to Earth in search of water to save his species. Showtime’s new The Man Who Fell to Earth series, which premiered on April 24, continues the story and Newton’s mission, with Chiwetel Ejiofor playing Faraday, another Althean working with a human scientist to develop technology that could save both their planets.

“I think (Bowie) set the tone for Altheans in terms of their emotional intelligence,” Ejiofor told IGN. “There’s a kind of vulnerability there, a sort of naivete that is potentially corruptible. There’s something wide-eyed about it, even though he’s quite steely as a character at times. I feel like a lot of these kinds of emotions or characteristics were useful as a base point for where Faraday could take off from.”

A refugee from a dying planet, Faraday discovers Earth may also be heading towards climate catastrophe.

“He is bringing a kind of warning in the most interesting way, a direct first-person account of the effects he found on his planet,” Ejiofor said. “I love that about Faraday, that he’s arriving saying ‘This is my experience, this is what happened to me and this is what happened to Anthea.’

Ejiofor said he hopes that seeing Earth through Faraday’s eyes will also give audiences a new appreciation for how much the planet gives us.

“The story is really talking about how one looks at this planet, how one appreciates the planet and all that it brings and all that it allows us to do. As an Althean, what he recognizes is that everything is connected to the planet — the capacity to love, the engagement of families, the idea that you can roll around in meadows and read poetry if you want if you’re one of the lucky few living in environmentally safe areas. This is something that we take so entirely for granted.”

To achieve his goals, Faraday becomes a tech mogul in the mold of Elon Musk or Steve Jobs. Ejiofor said he’s fascinated by how pushing technological innovation can bestow some people with “godlike status.”

I’m excited about Mordo and everything that he brings, I think that there’s a kind of wealth to this part of the MCU

“Faraday is trying to really understand what human beings require from tech, why they lean in and engage with it,” Ejiofor said. “There is power in tech. There is the potential for incredibly positive things to come out of technology. There’s also the potential for it to be manipulated. I was intrigued by Faraday looking at humanity and understanding that technological worship is a vulnerable point for human beings, and working out how to play with that.”

This is a busy few weeks for Ejiofor, who will be reprising the role of Karl Mordo in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which hits theaters on May 6. Doctor Strange’s mentor will be taking on a more antagonistic role in the film.

“I’m excited about Mordo and everything that he brings,” Ejiofor said. “I think that there’s a kind of wealth to this part of the MCU and these characters and the way that they are growing and how they interact with other parts of it and the world broadly and how they’re still dealing with their own interpersonal dynamics which I think are very rich and exciting to play.”

For more on Chiwetel Ejiofor, be sure to check our review of the series premiere of The Man Who Fell to Earth.