12 Years A Slave - Trailer

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Director Steve McQueen joins the stars of '12 Years A Slave' to praise the immense level of acting skill that went into creating the movie. Among those actors were main star Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alfre Woodard, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Michael Fassbender and Lupita Nyong'o.

McQueen praised Cumberbatch's efforts as the caring but flawed Ford, stating, 'There's a strong sensibility about Benedict which translates very well for that character', while newcomer Lupita Nyong'o talked about her time acting with bad guy Fassbender: 'He's terrifying but he's also really a gentle person in real life which made it safe to do the things I had to do with him.' The main highlight is of course Ejiofor who explained that he did a lot of reading to get into his slave character's head. 'Once you read Solomon's autobiography, it puts you in a certain mindset where you start to get a little glimpse into what he's going through and what he is seeing', he says, with Woodard adding, 'You can't imagine how difficult it was to do what he had to do and he was amazing.'