CELLULOID

July 2006

John LeKay: In what part of London were you born?

Sarita Choudhury: South East, so yeah, Blackheath.

JL:  How old were you when you moved ? You were raised in Jamaica, Mexico, and Italy; what was that experience like of traveling so much as a child?

SC: It wasn't that much traveling because it was eight years in Jamaica, two years in Mexico, then back to Jamaica and then when I was 11 - moved to Italy, and then that was it.

JL:  In Ontario?

SC: University, but base was Italy - because if you're Jamaican, you want British education and a lot of Jamaicans go to Canada or England. They skip America because in Jamaica their education is more British, so my father wanted the same for us.

 

JL:  Do you remember what the defining moment was while studying economics at Queens University in Ontario, to switching to acting?

SC: No, I never switched.  I always wanted to be an actress. All my life, I danced - my obsession was dance; and then when I was sixteen I started getting interested in acting, but I would never say to my father I'm gonna go study acting because he would never - he would support it like as a side thing, but not as a degree - and I wanted to study - so I studied economics - and just went to the drama department at university - just joined it - and then in my second year, I  called him and confessed to him that I was gonna do a film degree and could I do it if I kept up economics.  And he said yes.  So I did two.

He's very cool - you know sometimes you assume things of your parents and then you don't ask them and then when you actually ask them they say ok.

But just in terms of my father, it is interesting, most Indians - everyone knows this - a good Indian child studies law, medicine, or any of the classic - but, the truth is, and I am learning this more and more from my father, anytime I'm just truthful - he's cool.  You spend so much time assuming that you can't be.

JL: Is he a doctor?

sc: He's a scientist.

 

JL: I don't know if Mississippi Masala (1992) was your debut film; what was that experience like of working on a film like that - since it got a tremendous amount of critical acclaim?

SC: Well, when you're working on it - you don't know it's going to be critically acclaimed so that helps.  I mean, having Denzel in it was so - ah - I mean I could barely work.  because, I'd seen his work, I'd seen Mira's work - I just felt very - I can't believe I'm here.  Do you know what I mean; it was very blurry  - the whole experience - because I was just so excited and also just trying to pretend not to be excited.  I was so shy and I just kept on having to pretend this was normal, to get through it. It was weird.

JL:  What about after the fact, after the film came out - did you have a problem with suddenly people recognizing you and losing your  anonymity?

SC: At the beginning it was kind of just fun - and then it was too much.  Because it's not like I earned that much money from doing the film -  so I was still waitressing -  and I mean - I had to deal with customers flipping out and people started screaming when you would come up.

 

Sarita Choudhury and Denzel Washington in Mira Nair's Missipipi Marsala

Sarita Choudhury at the premier of She Hate Me

 Directed by Spike Lee

JL:  After the film?

SC: Yes, because when you do an independent - it's not like you become rich, and the film doesn't come out for a year.  So, you do it and you go back to work.  You know what I mean.  When the movie came out, I started getting acting work - but there was a year in between - and people started seeing it because they saw screenings or whatever - and then it comes out - it was playing at Angelika, and I was waitressing on West Broadway - it was horrible.

And then I got my first job maybe two months after the film opened - but you know,  you have to live in those two months.

JL:   I'm sure that everyone gets the same impression - that once you're in a film like that - suddenly life changes.

SC: No, no, I mean maybe to some people.  But (A) I was Indian, living in America - it's not like there are so many roles; I wasn't black, I wasn't white - and it was '94, '93. Now it's more normal, but it wasn't like - oh, we know what to do with her - immediately.

JL: So, when you started getting more roles - say a couple of months later - did that start to impact your life? 

SC: Yeah, I mean basically - when I started traveling with Mississippi Masala for festivals and we started getting acclaim around the world - and then I started getting offers - it was kind of like I went from waitressing - to I didn't even have enough dresses to wear.  It was like I was thrown into a world - oh - ok - we'll lend you a dress.  It was very quick and it was really exciting, and also a little bit - I had to be a little careful because I wanted to do good work and I didn't want to say yes to the first thing, but I was scared I would never work again so I wanted to say yes.  It was a lot.

 

 

JL:  Disorienting?

SC: Disorienting, definitely. 

JL:  You have played many diverse characters  (A Pakistani country-western singer in Wild West, a Chilean maid in Billie August's adaptation of The House of the Spirits, a lesbian mother in Fresh Kill  1994).   Was this a deliberate intention of yours as to not get typecast or did it just work out that way?

SC: I think it's both.  One, I don't live in Los Angeles, I live in New York which tends to allow you to; like the independent scene just gives you that chance.  Like for example, if I heard there was a role of a Bosnian girl, I would beg my agent to put me in; I'd get the accent and just go in fully with an accent.  I very much worked on doing that on purpose; because I knew as an Indian girl I'm not going to get enough work. And I've been brought up around the world so I'm very political and so it's probably who I am to do that.  The other side was you get what you get and you just take it - and there's that they don't know who I am - they don't know what I look like - so - Oh she looks Spanish - and her name is "Sarita" - not Sharita.

JL:  How do you pronounce it?

Sarita Choudhury in Kama Sutra A Tale of Love

Mira Nair

SC: Who knows, because here at this point everyone says Sarita; but in India it's Shorita.  A lot of people think it's Spanish because it sounds Spanish.  Part of it was intentional and part of it was - you know - some offers - because at the time people said well she can do that - so it was a mixture.

JL:  Yeah, it makes sense.   You mentioned Mira Nair earlier, you've worked with her a few times; in Mississippi Masala, The Perez Family (1995) and Queen Tara in Kama Sutra a Tale of Love; what is it like working under her direction for you; since you've worked with her a few times?

SC: I love it because Mira is a really complex person and she's not easy and I love that.  I like the high I get from when we get it right and I like the tension when it's wrong.  She's a strong woman; she's really specific - I love working with her - and she's like family to me so we can push things.  She's a short hand with me  that I think it creates ah - we're allowed to do certain things that I can't do with someone else or that I wouldn't do with someone else.

JL:  She's Indian?  Does that help with...

SC: Yeah, she's Indian.  I was obsessed with her, which is why I got Mississippi Masala.  I had seen all her work. I purposely wrote to her; she was Indian - she was my mentor.  She comes from documentary. 

JL:  Does she live in London?

SC: No, she lives here.

JL:  These next questions are about the creative process.  How do you know when a script is right for you?  What is it that you look for?

SC: Just good writing. I mean, there are so many bad scripts that you just can tell immediately if it's a good script.

I just finished a film directed by Sona Jain called 'For Real'..., here is a case where the script was good so I said yes, but she truly turned out to be one of the best director's I have ever worked with. She is very active in her direction not descriptive. I really relied on her and had such a fun time because I knew she would come up with strange inspiring thoughts to push me. Also she had a great sense of humour which never hurts.

 

 

JL:  So you react to the writing then, essentially?

SC: Purely.  That or if the director is someone that I think is amazing, I would give precedence to that.  You know what I mean - one factor has to be something - like if it was Gianni Amelio who is an Italian director that I love.  If I heard he was doing a film, I wouldn't even need to look at the script.  I would just do it, yes.

JL:  You would just trust him?

SC: And those are usually with auteurs - you know - who direct their own writing - or - so it would either be that - or it would be the writing; because the character doesn't really matter - you know - you can play a secretary - you can play a maid - if the writing is brilliant.  You know what I mean.

JL:  Because you can adapt to whatever the part is, or because it's going to be interesting anyway.

SC: Yeah.  Exactly.

Sarita Choudhury in Gloria (1999) [Angela Nunez]: Shot in the chest by Mike Starr in her apartment, while he interrogates Bobby Cannavale

 

From War Within

 

JL:  It makes a lot of sense.

SC: Because then it's fun work - because if you've got good writing - you're immediately inspired on how to do it; whereas when you've not got good writing - I'm the kind of actress - I need to be directed - I'm not good if I don't know what film I'm in.

JL:  So you kind of need structure?

SC: I need words, or I need a director to be like - stand upside down because anyway I'm gonna paint you blue - I love that kind of work; I like falling into the hands of the medium.

JL: Is there a particular method you use in approaching a character?

SC: No.  I mean, in different periods of my life - there was a period when I was doing a workshop - it's called plastiques - and it's Grotowsky's method of using the body with your work - and so there was like a film within - we had to do that to do the scenes - and that was incredible.

JL: Required from the director?

 

 

 

SC: Well, the lead actor had done the workshop with me so he knew I knew how to do it - and they taught us as well - so - it was his belief. So that was a pleasure - because I sometimes do that anyway to warm up for a film and other times, it depends on the film, but there's not one technique at all.  Sometimes I'll do a lot of research and other times the writing is strong enough - I don't have to do that much research. 

When we did War Within, Ahab who is the lead actor of  the movie and one of the writers actually taught the workshop I had done years ago - so he knew a lot of it and also the director - so he knew a lot about it - so when we went to do War Within -  the method of plastiques from Grotowsky was used.  

JL:  Have you ever committed to making a film and then realized you had made a mistake?  Like something that you'd wished you'd got out of.

SC:  That's a good question.  Let me think - If I have - it's only like once -  most of my memories are really good.  I've been really lucky to work with kind of good people - I've had really good experiences.  I'll probably wake up tonight thinking - wow - what a liar.  I was like that one - but I can't remember that right now. 

JL:  I can't remember who the actor was - I think it was DeNero or Joe Pesce, or one of those guys that said as soon as they put on the clothes, something transforms and the character comes to life. I think it was Joe Pesce -  it could be his use of wigs -  like externally.

SC: Definitely the clothes - yes - but again you have to trust that the costume designer's brilliant.  So if you are lucky enough to have that - it's great.  Yeah - especially for women - clothes -  because I don't wear heels in life, but if I'm wearing heels in a film, I will be completely different - because I have to work with it.  It makes me have to deal with it to make it normal and then also I am very aware I'm playing a character - because I don't feel myself - which I love.  When I wear heels, I don't feel myself.  I like wearing heels; but in life - there's no way - I just can't - I'd fall.

So, yeah, I agree with that.  Props.  Like I love seeing my house - and my bedroom in a film - and it's often hard to do so because they often don't set it up much more than a day for filming, but that I really love

In Spike Lee's She Hate Me

(Photo © Carol Rosegg)

Sarita Choudhury and Sherri Eldin in Roar
 

 

JL: You react to it - like anything - scenery - like a visual kind of stimuli?

SC: Anything external.  Especially like - you know the painting on the wall - sometimes even if I don't like what they've done in my room - it's great - because - oh wow - it's not me - so why would I have that ugly painting on the wall - and really deal with what you're given.  If you're lucky to work with really good people - it's a good choice.  Sometimes in film you have to go with what's wrong and make it something - make a choice out of it - you know what I mean.  It's kind of a complicated way to work but you have to.  It's like if you're working with a bad actor - you have to acknowledge that he's not great.  Just like in life, sometimes people - there has to be that acknowledgement.

JL:  That was going to be my next question - Is there anything that helps you get into the role or the head of the other actor?

SC: It's so important again.  It's kind of a deep question - and I don't want to really go into what acting is.  I mean the only reason we speak is because you're asking me something - if not - I'm not going to sit here speaking.  Who you are depends how I'll answer.  Because it's not just the question; it's the way you ask it - what you're asking - how you are - how I feel when you're asking it.  So that's the level I'm dealing with - like my acting almost depends on what's coming at me.  Do you know what I mean?

JL:  Yeah, their presence.

SC: And the audience is seeing you as the actor asking the question - so I have to see it too.  So the next part - I just can't decide what I'm going to do without - two things happen - I have to do a lot of work but I also have to stay present as to the way you ask me and take that work and bring it to the present.

JL:  Like in the moment.  So then that leaves everything open to a lot of flexibility for you.

SC: I would say - 70% of it is the work before - doing it - right.  It's like a gymnast; if you're going to the Olympics - you train - you train - you train - the actual place, the actual audience, the actual tension of the stakes being so high are going to contribute to the point.  So that 30% is what that is.

JL:  Yeah, I understand.    

In many of your films that I've seen over the last couple of weeks; I've noticed so many different accents - is that a natural ability or is it something you have to work hard at?

SC: No - I think that most people have a few that they could do naturally well, like I have a few that I'm like - oh I know I can slip into that easily, then a few I had to train.  And when you train, you get really specific help to do that.

JL:  You kind of touched on this question a little bit earlier - like with your work - there's so many variables.  I remember Marlon Brando said something about being spontaneous and being in the moment and not thinking - planning so many things in your head.  Like for example - so when you go to actually do a scene - do you have a preconceived notion?  Do you run through your mind first of how you're going to do it, or do you actually just get into the moment and just kind of go through the process?

Photo Brad Washburn

In the Break up artist

 

 

SC: Well, like I said, there's work involved before - the 70% - which is - who knows what that is for everyone - it will vary - right - that has to be there to be spontaneous - you know what I mean -  if you don't warm up, then you can't do a pirouette - but the pirouette with the partner has to match his partner.  Yes on a certain level - you perceive the scenes - you can't help but not; but in the moment if the guy suddenly makes you laugh - you have to be in the present moment - you have to laugh only if your character laughs that way - it's no good if you just laugh because then you've broken character.  So if you can find a way within character to start - say you're a very nervous uptight person and the person makes you laugh  in the middle of the scene - hopefully you will keep a certain nervousness to your laughter and not just become yourself laughing and then come back.  So it's tricky - spontaneity with your training.

JL:  That's interesting.

SC: Talking about acting - it's so hard - in that moment that I'm describing it you barely know how you're doing that - you just know afterwards that you either failed at it or you somehow - often when you think you've done well, you'll see the film and see that you've not done well.  So I think that's why it's hard for actors to talk about acting because it's for others to kind of go - Oh, that was really  good.

JL: Like judging your own work             -

SC: Yeah, it's weird, like you never really know.  All you do is try to do this work that you've been kind of trained and you have an instinct for and you just..

JL:  Is it because you can't be objective - it's hard for you to be objective

SC: Yes, really hard.

 

JL:  Because like making artwork, sculptures or paintings  I mean. You can kind of stand back from it and look at it over time.

SC: Right, but even then, because it's yours, it's hard, it is hard.  Which is why when you have a great director it's so great, because they'll be the first to be like - I know that felt great - that anger - I want that - I want it to be kept in - I want to see it in your eyes and I don't want to see any more.  And then you're like - oh - like he didn't find it interesting - so you have to go back and do the same thing - but contain it.  So it becomes exciting when you find someone who is like - yeah I know that felt good - but that's not what I want.  

JL:  I know you just made a big film,  Lady in the Water by M. Night Shyamalan; what is the character you play in that?

SC: She's really open and all ears and very kind of gullible on a certain level and really excited by life - you know what I mean - and on the other hand, very funny.  I don't know how to explain her - I've never played someone like her.  I just loved playing her so much.

JL:  Have you seen the rushes?

Bryce Dallas Howard, Sarita Choudhury and M Night Shyamalan in Lady in the Water

 

SC: Well sometimes, because I play Shyamalan's sister, he's in the movie, and we would sometimes go to the monitor together and we would play the scenes and have no clue if it was right or wrong, whatever, but I've not seen anything.  I'll wait till it's ready.

JL: It's funny because I've actually been working on an experimental film this morning myself, editing and applying the soundtrack and the voiceover; because once you - looking at a film like that - without the soundtrack to it - without it being edited - just the raw footage - it's weird.

SC: Oh yeah, it's awful - what is that - I know..

JL:  So, in most instances you deliberately hold off on seeing it?  Why is that?

SC: Because it's a film, it's not anything else - but you do it knowing that there's going to be editing.  I'm conscious of that when I'm even acting; that that is part of the procedure almost as well - so to see it before would almost be weird.

JL:  I know that you've done a lot of TV as well; is there a difference for you working on a TV set as opposed to a movie?

SC: Yeah - well the reason I'm not in LA is because I'm scared to do TV - like all these TV shows are NY based and they're all NY directors and they're all kind of - all the topics are really pretty - and I know soon I should go to LA - I've been holding off - I feel like I'm the only actor in NY now - the work is there - and it's hard because I live here and I like the NY sensibility but you know more and more the work is there - it's hard.  I've been lucky in that I've done more theatre than film so far. I'm so scared to end up on the wrong TV show - like Sydney Lumet, in the '70s, did great TV, but it's so much easier to make bad TV and you could end up on it.

 

JL:  And then once you're in it - it's kind of hard..

SC: Yeah, and you know, we all have to make money - so - I don't know - it's going to be one of those things that may happen.

JL:  On film sets you sometimes see actors do different things to de-stress, between shots; is there anything that you do - like do you do yoga or do you meditate?

SC: Yeah, well I go to dance class; like when I did Shyamalan's movie - I did yoga regularly and I swim - if there's a pool in the hotel - that's all I need - it's really all I need - but it depends where you are.

JL:  Is there a character that you can think of - it could be from a novel or from a film before- that you would really like to play?

SC: Yeah there are two from various novels, one is Anil - in Anil's Ghost by Andace; there were various characters in John Burger's novels that I love; who else - that's it pretty much.

JL:  Are you working on anything at the moment - any kind of projects?

SC: I kind of dedicated my summer to doing all of these workshops - I have this chance to do what I want to do; there's a dancer who's asked me to work with her - I haven't done that for a long time - just dance.  So, three times a week we meet for 2 hours and she's taught me the piece and then now works off of me or we work together to create this performance.

JL:  What kind of dance?

Photo: Michael Ginsberg

Sarita Choudhury as Colleen in Paramount Classics' Just a Kiss - 2002

 

SC: It's modern and incorporated in it is three monologues, some Indian references - Indian music - very modern.

It's actually called (I've been doing more of it lately) Movement Theatre, the choreographer - her name is Sita Mani.  We went to the same dance school together, and basically she's doing a piece that she's performing and she's asked me to learn it so she can work off me and study it and maybe one day I'll perform it - for now it's become like a study for me as well to get back into dance - which is my favorite thing in the world I think. The piece itself is called "Scarab Tales" and it's kind of like this woman's relationship to men. It's about truth not being so bitter a pill, that if we manage to put fear aside for a moment and look close enough and stay long enough and look at it and maybe even laugh a little, maybe we can move forward - it's just about fear and dealing and ego. 

Scarabs are these dung beetles and they eat and carry their eggs in fecal matter - it's kind of gross sounding but without them there would be no ecological balance - apparently - and they lay eggs in these dung bowls and then bury them - they push these huge loads - they're tiny, but they push these huge loads many more times than they weigh and then they bury them; they're considered this very sacred thing in India.  In the piece itself it comes up as a huge metaphor.

The reason I like working with this girl is she's dealing a lot with women being in relationships, maybe even being Indian, slightly, even though the piece is not about that - but still it is - as an actor using my body

Working with Sita has become this cave I go to - to just try out different things - I feel kind of safe because no one's really seen it yet -  they'll see her perform it first and foremost - so whether I perform it or not -  it's always good to have a place to practice things

 

JL:  This is for a performance piece - like in theatre - off Broadway?

SC: Yeah, it's her performance, and she's asked me to come in.  I don't know in what way I will perform.  She's doing the performing now and I'm kind of working with her, learning it, she makes me do it, she watches me.  I'm in love with dancing and I on any form want it to be a part of my life again.  Hopefully I'll get to perform it in maybe six months, but I'm not good enough yet to do it; she's already doing it, but we'll see.  So that's one thing.

SC: I've been doing a series readings,

JL:  Like poetry readings.

SC: No, when plays are written and they need to be workshopped and they need actors to perform them in front of an audience and for a producer to say yes we want that - and so it's exciting - I feel like I've been rehearsing every day.  I feel weird because you know when you do one project you're going kind of one way.  I've been doing three different things,

 Roar

 

JL:  Simultaneously?

SC: Simultaneously, and I feel like my ego's just being bashed because each director is like - it's their project so they need you to get to the level they want you to - but say you've just come from the other one and you have to re-enter their world - and none of them are quite ready - so it's not like you're twirling yet in happiness - so I just feel like I go from one to the next being told things like - hmmmm, I just feel like you don't believe it right now and then you do it but that's just like at the last minute and then you have to leave and start the new thing that you haven't yet - I just feel so exposed right now.  I know that like in a month I'll feel fantastic, but right now it feels like a lot of basic stuff.

We did a performance the other night, and the actual performance went really well and I could feel the audience - and I knew that this is something - ahh this is something - and it was such a treat because it had been two weeks of just rehearsing where you never feel that good.

JL:  Once you get in front of the audience, how does the feedback affect you?

SC: Such thrilling - because even when the feedback is not good - you're like - it helps you - it's thrilling - and when they laugh - it's like - wowwww- just beautiful. 

JL:  You did a piece three years ago - ROAR - how did that work out for you?

SC: That was fantastic to do - I loved doing that - only because I played a very kind of repressed woman; Anabella, was kind of the flaunty flouzy - and I was the repressed sister which I'd never played and it was so exciting - I loved working with Anabella  so much - there's something about the way we work - it's so great. And at the end - I break loose - so I got to do both characters - it was just so exciting.

JL:  Do you have a preference working in TV, film or theatre?

SC: You know, it's interesting when people ask that question, because if you are an actor or a director I guess - whatever - their such different beasts that you can't compare them - it's like each one is so enjoyable in their own way- and when you finish one you're like - ahhh - I want to do that again.  They're so thrilling in their own way, I can't even compare them.  They're so different.