Dev Patel , the handsome twenty-year-old Londoner became an overnight success thanks to Danny Boyle’s 'Slumdog Millionaire'. With his quintessential charm he chats to Expresso on his next flick, M Night Shyamalan’s 'The Last Airbender', living at home and Freida Pinto .
Life after Slumdog
A lot of travelling and some charity work. I went back to India to do some charity work and I stayed there for a couple of months. I went to Mumbai. I have lots of friends there from the film field and I really fell in love with it when I was making the film and I was determined to re-visit. It felt natural to go back there.
Charity work
It’s actually weird because M Night Shyamalan has adopted a child with a charity called Hope International and he brought some of the people from the charity on set one day. They came to the set and they were in the lunch queue and we just got talking. I’d been looking to give something back because 'Slumdog' has done so much for me. You know, I was the only British guy in the cast of 'Slumdog' and I had to do lots to prepare. So the charity is called Hope International and they have a sector called Hope India. Basically for me it was a bit of a fact-finding mission, so I visited schools and talked to the kids and spoke to them about what we can do.
'The Last Airbender '
It was fun. We were letting our hair down and going on to a massive set and learning some great martial arts moves. The cast was really young. It was really interesting for me to go from something like 'Slumdog Millionaire' to something like Airbender, where it’s like a $15 million to a $150 million.
Prince Zuko
He is a young prince of the Fire Nation. It’s a story set in a fantasy world and it’s split into four nations so there’s the Air Nation, The Fire Nation, The Water Nation and the Earth Kingdom and they have their different members and they have certain people in each nation who can harness their element and use it in combat. So let’s say if you are part of the Earth Nation, you can move earth, grab boulders and things like that. My character is a Prince of the Fire Nation and he is struggling because he is trying to find this character called Aang who is an avatar, this person who everyone thought was a myth. Aang has the power to harness all four elements and he’s the potential saviour of the world. My Nation is basically the evil nation trying to take over the world.
Martial Arts
Yes, I’ve learnt Tae Kwon Do since I was about 10 years old and that really helped. I came on last to the film and the others were already in boot camp and had started training.
Challenges
The most challenging thing was working on these big, spectacular sets, sometimes with green screen. 'Slumdog' was fantastic because for most of it we were working on location and you could feel it and see it in front of you. This was a different experience because you really had to use your imagination in certain part – Night would tell me ‘OK, you are going to grab fire from there and throw it over to there’ and you really had to conjure it up and believe it to sell it.
The Sets
The sets were spectacular. I had my own ship! They build my own ship – how cool is that? There are a few scenes when I’m sparring on the deck of my ship and when you see it you won’t believe it, it’s so good.
Working with Night
He’s great and he’s fabulous with children. He is like a big kid at heart sometimes and he is so energetic on set and the good thing is that he can poke fun at himself. So when you see him with the little kids like Nicola and Noah he is really down with them, there’s no separation and it’s like they’re talking to one of their best friends. And I think it really helps — he really connects with his cast and he gets great stuff out of all of them.
Fan following
It was strange because it was much harder than I thought and I kind of assumed it would be OK. Because there, they are into their own Bollywood actors and I’m certainly not that so I thought I would go there and have fun. But while even getting into a little rickshaw, everyone knew me. They all knew me from the film and they would call me ‘Hero’ and ‘millionaire’ and in Hindi they would shout ‘there’s that boy from 'Slumdog Millionaire',’ and so everyone knew me by my face although I’m not sure how many knew my name. I was surprised because even the rickshaw drivers, the people working on the stalls in markets, they all knew my face.
Staying grounded
I think it’s quite simple, really. Everyone says it’s hard to stay grounded but I don’t think it is. I don’t know how I could change really. Maybe it’s because of my family too. Working on a film set for hours and going home to your mum is always grounding. And I still have the same friends from school and things like that. We were protected during it all.
Living at home
I’m hardly ever there but yes, I do still live at home. My old bedroom is still there and maybe that’s a big part of it, I go home and it’s just the same as it always was.
Freida Pinto
It’s great to be with someone who understands what I do. She’s not only a great girlfriend but she’s also a great friend and a great support in what I do.
Indulgence
Yes, I’ve had some fun! But not really spent money on big luxuries. The only thing I want to do is learn to drive and then I might splash out on a car. But I’m not quite there yet; I’m still at the lessons stage. I’ve done the theory test but I’ve had no time. Every time I try and book a test, the centre is either booked or I’m flying off somewhere.
Shyamalan takes an idea from a cartoon series and turns it into a big film
I think he’s done it brilliantly. This film is about entertainment and escapism – you want to go there and escape into this fantasy world. The way that Night explained it to me was that he was going to bring a real human approach to the characters and give it more depth. Because you watch animation and they are big caricatures and they are there to make you laugh but in a film like this it’s fascinating what you can do, especially if you have a director like Night, and he made the characters more gritty, more rough around the edges and that’s what really enticed me to my character, he is so conflicted.
Based on the hugely successful Nickelodeon animated TV series, the live-action feature film, 'The Last Airbender' (Paramount Pictures Release), comes to theatres this Friday, July 9, 2010.