Playing Jefferson's Slave

The miniseries, Sally Hemings: An American Scandal will air on CBS Sunday night at 9 p.m. It stars British actress Carmen Ejogo as Sally Hemings, who had a relationship with Thomas Jefferson while she was his slave. Hemings had at least one child - and as many as six children - with Jefferson.

Ejogo, 26, has previously worked with Eddie Murphy in Metro and with Ralph Fiennes in The Avengers. She got her break in the movies with a bit part in a British film at age 11. Her father, now deceased, was a Nigerian entrepreneur. Her mother is a Scottish tour guide.

Ejogo talked with CBS Co-Anchor Jane Clayson about her work on Sally Hemings: An American Scandal.

One of the challenges Ejogo faced was getting the Virginia accent right. "I worked with a coach throughout filming," said Ejogo. "It helped that we were actually in Virginia, so I heard the Southern accent all around me. Yet the accent that was required of us was actually southern from 200 years ago, which has quite a British sound to it anyway."

At one point during filming, Ejogo played a scene where she's been whipped and had to lie in the mud for two hours.

"Emotionally that was quite overwhelming. It was unexpected. In a way I was quite out of control in the way I was feeling. It took me to a deeper level of understanding," she recalls. "It was part of the experience of such a well-devised character. You don't often get to play such well-developed, complex characters. The personal psychological price wasn't too high, since I could leave it behind me when I left the set."

Ejogo found that working in Richmond, Virginia was an eye-opener. "There's a [racial] tension in Richmond. London is a cosmopolitan city, and the separation and segregation in America is surprising, and especially in Richmond."

Ejogo is relatively unknown in America, and she isn't counting on this mini-series changing that. "I've been in this position before, where I think I'm right there, but then it gets tough again. I've got to keep my expectations in check, and take it as it comes."

She does have a movie coming out in the fall, Kenneth Brannaugh's adaptation of the Shakespeare play Love's Labor's Lost. It's a musical comedy set in the 30's.