Freida Pinto Interview
What was it like working with Danny on a one-to-one basis?
Freida Pinto: He does give you a lot of space and freedom to work on your character and that does help. In a strange way it’s funny that he would give that much independence to an absolute newcomer whose had no acting experience whatsoever.But he does that because he explains what the storyline is like, what’s happened before the scene that is shooting, and then he just lets you loose. So you kind of find yourself while doing that, and you can go skin deep into the character when you’re doing something like that. At the same time he’s really passionate about what he does, he almost looks psychotic when he puts his hands to his head, and his hair is up and his eyes are boring into you. All he’s doing is thinking, it’s fun to see him doing all of that because when someone is putting that much passion and energy into a project you don’t want to disappoint him, you want to give more than he expects.
And you will also have worked closely with cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, didn’t you?
Freida Pinto: I remember my first scene that I shot was the scene with Salim, where he gives me the keys and lets me go. That scene was, in a strange way, very weird because for most of it I wasn’t even looking at Salim I was looking at Anthony’s shoulder. He knew that I found this really uncomfortable, that I couldn’t really understand what was happening, why I was not looking at Salim but Anthony’s shoulder and delivering lines. So he took this pink tape and put it on his shoulder, so I could concentrate on that one point. And he said if I looked a little off it would look like I wasn’t looking at Salim, and even though it looks really weird that’s how the camera has been positioned. He explained all these things. I don’t know how many people would really take time out to do that, they’d just say ‘look here and deliver your lines,’.
Had you seen your character’s backstory?
Freida Pinto: I saw one scene, where the boys eyes are damaged. I went there just for kicks, actually. And I was there because the kids were there and I wanted to see what they were doing. It was pretty close to my place, but that was the only one. The kids were having a great time, but then to see the scene on the screen – this is a really brutal scene – but the kids were jumping around and having fun not knowing what they were shooting, probably. That’s the beauty of them, they can do what they want but when they’re in the scene they’re obedient and they’ll do what they have to do. They don’t have to over analyse things like us.
These scenes help establish the audience’s rapport with the characters, don’t they?
Freida Pinto: You know it’s successful when people talk to you and ask you questions about Baby Latika, even though they know that’s not being played by me. They know it’s successful and has been done seamlessly.
Does Dev seamlessly pull off the challenge of playing a young Mumbai resident?
Freida Pinto: His accent would give it away, but he looks like an Indian. He is an Indian. I think more than anything else the fact that he could bring in the mannerisms of a Mumbai boy, he marvellously conquered that.
Was it a relief to find you both got on – did you bond prior to filming?
Freida Pinto: Absolutely, in fact I auditioned with Dev for my second to last audition, with 15 other girls. It was fun, because the first thing I said when I walked in was I’d really like to show him Bombay. He said he’d love to, he was really jetlagged but he reciprocated enthusiasm that I had for my city. The moment he said that I was like, ‘okay he seems to be passionate about seeing my city,’ and obviously after I got the role I fulfilled my promise and showed him south Mumbai, along with Madhur [Mittal] who plays Salim, and the casting director. That was so much fun, we went to some of the most visited spots in Bombay and we had a good time. We’d hang around on the down time on the set, chatting with then make up artists, in the trailer. It just helped us a lot to do the more intense scene together more comfortably, more than anything else. And we had a lot in common, this was our first film, both very in awe of Danny.
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