Chiwetel Ejiofor explores faith’s costs in ‘Come Sunday’

NEW YORK – If Pablo Picasso had a blue period and the Beatles went through a psychedelic phase, then Chiwetel Ejiofor (CHOO’-ih-tehl EHJ’-ee-oh-for) is currently going through his religious period.

The Oscar-nominated star of “12 Years a Slave” has gone from playing Peter the apostle in the upcoming biblical drama “Mary Magdalene” to playing a contemporary Pentecostal pastor in the midst of a religious crisis in the Netflix drama “Come Sunday.” Could this be pure coincidence?

“Perhaps,” the British actor says.

The back-to-back religious-themed projects have left Ejiofor — raised a Roman Catholic who drifted from the church in his teens — with a new perspective on faith.

He says: “Inevitably, you see faith differently.”