In Come Sunday, Ejiofor explores the fall from grace of renowned Oklahoma evangelical Carlton Pearson, who comes to believe that there is no such thing as hell. The implications are shuddering for that branch of faith: Without hell, everyone is saved, regardless of belief or behaviour. There's no need to go to church.
"Whether or not somebody individually believes in hell or doesn't is just a simple personal decision of limited consequence to the outside world. Obviously it's important to that person. But if you're a preacher and you're preaching that there's no hell, well, that's a very, very different thing," Ejiofor says. "It's heresy."
Viewers watch the anguish Pearson endures, caught between church doctrine and his own beliefs. The bulk of his flock leave and he is forced to downsize his life. Ejiofor compares Pearson's journey to that of a Shakespearean tragedy and commends the preacher for "a very certain, very specific kind of bravery".
"It was just a very powerful push and pull, a very powerful sort of torment," he says. "That was what the story represented to me – a man finding out how to think differently."
The final film is melancholy and moody, often capturing the actors in stillness and deep reflection. It's an adult movie about big ideas that's not interested in pandering or ridiculing religious audiences.
"I think that it's important to find various different ways of talking about religion and talking about spirituality, talking about faith or talking about connection, which don't either seem overly pious nor do they seem dismissive," says Ejiofor.
"I think we can be in danger of not understanding each other because we're not connected to these very, very strong religious and philosophical links in the way that we think."
Come Sunday premieres on Netflix on April 13
AP
