Dev Patel is nominated for Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in the movie Lion. He recently sat down for an interview with Vulture in anticipation of this Sunday's awards show; here are some of the highlights:
Your hair looks great. What are you doing to it?
"If I told you my hair tip, you’d laugh. It’s Cetaphil moisturizer. After I finish moisturizing my face, I rub the rest of it in my hair."
Really? Did you come up with that on your own?
"It’s from sheer laziness."
Well, it seems to work. My grandfather used to use Jergens hand lotion.
"In his hair? We’re on to something here."
Lion certainly has more star power, but I would say a whole lot of what you used to describe Slumdog Millionaire would apply too. So I wonder, by point of contrast, what was this experience like for you when you heard about all the nominations that it got?
"I mean, it’s such a beautiful experience. Because I’ve spent eight years since trying to find my feet in the industry, you know? And sometimes the work hasn’t been quite so successful. So when you’re all of a sudden in a position where you’ve got your peers recognizing some of the work you’ve done, it’s pretty overwhelming and beautiful. Slumdog came at a time when Obama was just about to become president, and everyone was passing around these badges with “Hope” on them, and it was really beautiful. And this, right now, in the world is a much more different climate. It’s interesting. But both films are beacons of love. And that’s an amazing message to be speaking about."
It’s interesting what you said about what you look for in a role. I remember Garth Davis said that you’re very insistent on not being typecast as the funny Indian. Have you had to tell your team there’s a certain sort of thing that you get offered that you’re not interested in?
"Yeah. And you know, it’s kind of hard because a lot of the work I do does stem from, “I’m playing an Indian guy,” because I am one. So people will kind of package that into me playing the same character all the time. But I think that’s kind of unfair, because how can you compare the character I played in Marigold Hotel to [The Man Who Knew Infinity], a period film about the first [Indian] mathematician to go to Cambridge? Or, you know, Lion. They’re all so different. To just boil it down to the color of the character’s skin is a shame. With this, what was really exciting to me was that the character is dissected into two worlds. It begins with the audience following a young boy reacting to a really traumatic environment. And he doesn’t say much, but he’s an Indian kid lost from his parents in India. And then there’s a moment where our screenwriter describes it as a baptism, where the character comes out of the water and he’s an Australian. And it’s the first time you see me, and he’s got facial hair, he’s bigger, he’s really acclimatized to nature and the earth. And he sounds different, he looks different. Everything about him is Australian. And that was something that really drew me to the role, that I was actually playing an Australian man trying to connect to a part of himself that had been dormant for so long."
And using an Australian accent.
"All of that. So that to kind of diminish all that work and transformation and just say, “Oh it’s another Indian role,” is sometimes a bit heartbreaking."
But I think it’s a very lucky and very good thing that you’ve been able to play such varied characters. Though I think I understand what you’re saying, you know. You have had the fortune of playing so many fantastic characters that were written as Indian. Do you find that Hollywood shows the same sort of imagination when it comes to casting you for roles that aren’t written in any particular way?
"Umm, not yet, no. But I mean, things are changing, you know? I try to look and find the silver lining wherever I can. But that’s okay. I’m happy with my piece right now. And I’m earning my stripes. I’m 26, so I’ve got a bit of time to go."
How did it feel to get that sort of individual recognition for Best Supporting Actor?
"Pretty overwhelming actually. I was with my best friend in India, and he was with me on my way to the audition for Garth. And [back then] I was having, like, a panic attack in the car. And I was just crippled with fear, because I hate auditioning. And he was giving me a pep talk. Trying to get me to get the confidence to walk in the door and claim this role. [Now] we’re in India, having finished another film together [Hotel Mumbai, about the 2008 attack at the Taj Hotel], and I turn to him, having received this call and I’m on the verge of tears. I’ve just been nominated for an Oscar. And it was a beautiful kind of full-circle moment."
Read the full interview at Vulture.
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