Even though she’s no stranger to effects-heavy productions thanks to a litany of credits that includes The Avengers (no, not that one, the 1998 flop), the Fantastic Beasts franchise, Alien: Covenant, Marvel Cinematic Universe series Secret Invasion, and The Batman spin-off The Penguin, Carmen Ejogo hasn’t appeared in anything quite like I’m a Virgo before.
The acclaimed Prime Video series debuts tomorrow, plunging audiences into the story of star and executive producer Jharrel Jerome’s Cootie, a 13-foot tall teenager that’s been shielded away from the world by his overprotective guardians, with Ejogo’s Lafrancine and Mike Epp’s Martisse going out of their way to ensure he isn’t thrown out into a society that may not be equipped to handle his existence.
Ahead of I’m a Virgo premiering on streaming, We Got This Covered had the chance to speak to Ejogo about the project, where we cover her experience in titles with no shortage of VFX, what the series means to her, while even finding the time to concoct a plan to heist an ancient artifact from a bar, which you can check out below.
Always a pleasure to meet an honorary Scottish person [Ejogo was born in London to a Scottish mother and Nigerian father].
Yes! I was reading up on the Stone of Scone yesterday, I wonder if it ends up back in Edinburgh. Hopefully.
Randomly, I used to live above a pub that claims to have the real Stone of Destiny.
What?!? Okay, did you ever attempt to steal it, after the “fake one” was stolen?
Well, I haven’t, but people have.
Oh, I love that. That’s wild. You’ll need to tell me afterwards the name of the pub, next time I’m in Scotland I might try the same.
I will do, but first I need to get back on topic. Out of the I’m a Virgo cast, you’ve probably got the most experience when it comes to working on productions that require effects. Did that come in handy at all, given the logistics required in a lot of your scenes? Or was it more a case of the script already having those bases covered before you even need to consider the logistical side of things?
Yeah, that’s a really good question. I mean, it’s funny because I actually felt like I came in as an absolute novice, when it came to the technical side of this, because it’s all stuff that I’ve never actually done before, which is part of the appeal for doing the show in the first place, so I’ve never done a show with stop motion.
And I can imagine most actors will never be able to say that they did a show with stop-motion. So I just have, like, immediate credibility, serious kudos, because there’s not many people that are gonna go through a career and have gotten to do that. And the same with working with puppets, working with scale. I don’t think there’s a lot of people that get to do that sort of thing. And I’ve never done it before.
And likewise, you know, just false perspective, there are all these very cool things that were being utilized that were brand new for me. So in a sense, I suppose I was. What had prepared me from having done more CGI stuff, or… I guess, maybe Alien: Covenant, I think maybe there was some of that stuff. And some of the TV shows in the past that I’ve done. But with that, I suppose what prepared me most was just the idea that you sometimes have to work in unusual circumstances. And you can’t always rely on getting the motion directly from the actor that’s in front of you.
And that was the case with this. I suppose I was a little more prepared for that. Because at times, you’re talking to a 13-foot puppet, trying to act as though like you’re getting emotion from Jharrel, who’s not in the same even in the same room as you! It’s very weird. And in that sense, I suppose I was a little prepared for that, based on some of the films I’ve done before.
In general, I’m a Virgo could generously be described as a genre-bender that defies categorization, and different audiences are going to interpret it in different ways depending who they are, where they watch it, and how they watch it. As a performer and an audience member, how would you best describe it in your own words, if it’s even possible to do it justice?
I mean, it’s hard to do it justice, because it’s like, where the show begins isn’t necessarily even where it ends. There’s so many things that it passes through in terms of themes and ideas and stuff. So it’s very amorphous in that way. But I suppose it’s like a coming-of-age story of a 13-foot Black kid in America, who is finding himself and figuring out how he can survive in a country, in a place that doesn’t know what to do with somebody that is special.
And that’s something different. I think it also really successfully explores mythology, and what it is to be, like, one person’s enemy is another person’s hero. One person’s good, you know, that’s doing one idea of good, is another person’s idea of bad. And I think it’s all very much the perspective that you choose to take, and as to how you interpret a lot of things that happen around you every day. I just like the idea that it makes you think, and be critical in your thinking; don’t assume that just because you see it that way, that everyone sees it that way.
Don’t assume that just because you think you have it right, that everyone else says you have it right. I think some people have the privilege of being able to walk through life, thinking and knowing that everyone sees the world kind of the same, but actually there are a lot of people out there that feel very much on the fringes, and feel vilified for it. And so I liked the fact that explores that stuff below.
If you want to get trapped down that rabbit hole, it’s the Arlington Bar that claims to have the real Stone of Destiny.
The Arlington Bar? I’ll see you there! At midnight.
I’m a Virgo premieres on Prime Video this Friday, June 23. Be sure to check out our review of the series here, as well as our exclusive interviews with executive producer Michael Ellenberg, stars Allius Barnes and Brett Gray, as well as fellow cast members Kara Young and Olivia Washington.