Freida Pinto
Black Gold star Freida Pinto talks revolution, big breaks and acting behind a veil
She’s the girl who escaped obscurity (and a string of failed auditions) to take the lead in Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire – the girl whose doe-eyed, luminous beauty shone out of every frame. Since then, Freida Pinto has proved herself nothing if not versatile, with roles that have run from a beautiful primatologist (Rise of The Planet of the Apes) to a seductive musicologist (Woody Allen’s You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger). She studied arabic to play the palestinian lead in Miral; now, the girl from Mumbai is playing an arabian princess in the forthcoming Black Gold. Voyager catches up with the identify-shifting actress to discuss her lastest role.
In Miral you were cast as a teenage Palestinian girl, caught up in the conflict with Israel in the late 1980s. In Black Gold, you play another Arab character – but one in very different circumstances. This time it’s a princess, Lallah, whose story is set against the oil boom of the ’30s. What attracted you to the role?
When I read the script, the thing that drew me to the character is that she’s surrounded by what is essentially a male-centric world. Despite this, Lallah represents that desire for modernity. The women in that culture at the time in Arabia really didn’t have that much freedom, but Lallah represents the Everywoman who’s trying to be free and reach out to the world beyond.
What were the challenges of the role?
It was almost stifling as an actress, because the script and story required the character to be contained behind the mashrabiya [a carved wooded lattice screen] and behind a veil. It’s very difficult because often there’s a lot you want to emote in a particular scene but it’s only your eyes, your eyebrows, and a bit of your mouth that can be seen. It can get frustrating – but then it also makes the challenge even more interesting, because you have only that much to tell the story with.
As you were filming in Tunisia, the events of the Arab Spring were unfolding around you. How did that experience affect you?
It’s very unique and very rare to get to witness the making of history. I was there. When I was asked if I wanted to leave for my own safety, I was like, ‘No way.’ If something like that happened in India, if there was a revolution that broke out for the good of the people, I would want to be part of it. I know a lot of people were jealous that I stayed back and wished they could be there too. I actually felt great about witnessing it first-hand: the curfews and the happiness when people realised that the government was going to fall. It was a great feeling to be there.
Your co-stars in the film also stood their ground – among them Antonio Banderas, who plays your father. What was he like to work with?
Antonio’s character in the film is loud, extravagant and very in your face – which is something I fed off. I literally drew and sucked out a little bit of that character and put it into mine, so the boldness in my character very much comes from him. He’s very royal in the way that he expresses himself; there’s a demeanour that’s very lion-like, and I could take that from him and play his cub.
On a more frivolous note, what was the best part about playing a princess?
The clothes! It definitely has to be the clothes. I had these beautiful, vintage garments. What was great about this film was that it was very collaborative: if
I had an idea of how to change the shoes or style the headgear in a certain way, the director, Jean-Jacques Annaud, was always open to it – so that was the fun part. I played a princess, but a princess who dressed herself up. All the pampering, hair combing and oil massages were great, but with great power comes great responsibility. Being the princess and being pampered wasn’t the be-all and end-all: there was a certain body language that I had to adopt for this film, so that was the challenge. My shoulders couldn’t be slouching all the time, just being Freida. I had to be graceful in what I was doing, and even the way I walked had to command respect.
Do you think films like Black Gold have the potential to help Western audiences understand the Middle East better? And as an outsider, how do you personally relate to the story and culture?
I think it’s very much like India, in that the Arab world hasn’t yet been explored fully on film. Although India is explored within our own film industry, internationally we’re not fully represented. I feel very privileged to be playing an Arab woman, to be going out there and talking about their stories and to be representing them. I don’t have to be Arab in order to represent them. I think I have to be a woman before I have to be an Arab.
Since your breakthrough in Slumdog Millionaire, most of your roles have taken you away from India, whether for European arthouse cinema or US action movies. How would you feel about being cast in a role closer to home?
I haven’t really been given a script where Indian characters have been spoken about, except for Slumdog Millionaire and Trishna. I’ve actually been approached more about Arab characters, such as in Julian Schnabel’s Miral and now Black Gold, but I would love to work more in India.
In India, you’ve come under fire for not playing parts in more home-grown films. What’s your reaction to that?
Every time I respond to this question it gets misconstrued. Then by the time it trickles down from the place of origin to India, it’s a completely different story, and I’m like, ‘I didn’t say that, for crying out loud!’ It’s very depressing at times. At the start of my career, I was much too young to understand how to deal with it, but this kind of forceful growing, pushing me to grow faster, has made me realise that instead of being bitter about it, [I should] try to understand what they’re trying to say. Now I just look at it and think, ‘Maybe it’s a sign of curiosity. Where did she come from? How is it that her career path is different from what we see the other actresses doing in India?’ I guess I’m trying to look at it in a positive light, and that helps me keep my sanity.
Instead of taking the blockbuster/romantic comedy route, you’ve often chosen to work on more serious, thoughtful films. What guides your choices?
I like anything that makes me think out of the box or engage with something that I never thought of before. With Black Gold, just researching about the discovery of oil and its repercussions and consequences was so interesting. That’s how I’ve always been: as a child, I was super-inquisitive. My sister was studying psychology and would talk about some aspect of abnormal psychology and, the next thing she knew, I’d be looking through her book, finding out what she was talking about.
It was Slumdog Millionaire that started everything for you, and put you on the map almost overnight. Are you still in touch with the other actors from that film? Obviously not everyone who worked on it has gone on to Hollywood careers…
Some are much too young and have their education in front of them, but I do keep in touch with them. When you watch the film, the middle boy is one of the boys I keep in touch with. He’s a lovely kid. To be there to sometimes talk through questions like, ‘Why didn’t it happen for me?’ is hard. But it’s nice that I can be there for him in whatever possible way. So I do keep in touch with them. The younger kids I don’t see all the time, but I get pieces of news from other people who are still in contact with them, like the hair and make-up team.
Obviously, you see a lot of your co-star Dev Patel [Freida’s London-based boyfriend]. Do you advise each other which projects to pick?
We talked to each other when the script for Rise [of the Planet of the Apes] was sent to me. Dev was down with me in Montreal and I said, ‘You know what, I said I was planning on coming to London and taking a break for the summer, but this script has come my way and it’s amazing. What do I do?’ And he asked, ‘What’s the script?’ and I said, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and he was like, ‘Don’t be silly. Don’t even ask me such a stupid question!’ So, yeah, we do talk about it.
