I loved my role in 'Learning to Drive.' It was so different.
Theatre is highly satisfying in terms of words. You get to speak in monologues; words drive the action.
I love theatre because of the audience. It feels risky. But I love film because it travels to the whole world. To an audience I don't see.
Playing Frida was hard and wonderful. I found such a force in her, bigger than me. I tried to make it just a woman who had to do what she did. A woman who lived, ate, and laughed. I tried to avoid the 'icon' of Frida Khalo.
Some people are very ambitious and plan their whole careers, but I am not that kind of a person.
I live in New York. I go to dance class; I do theatre. When things are sent to me, if I like them, I push to do them. And I would absolutely love to do anything that's part of my dad's homeland.
I don't think of the characters as nationalities. I do not live in India. Playing people from different backgrounds, including Indians, comes easily to me.
For me, what is important is to bring the inner life of these characters - their strengths, contradictions, anguish and triumph - alive.
If I am playing a historical character, I try to watch the person in newsreels and read about them, but I will not imitate them.
I was very shy about acting. I thought you had to be confident. I was confident with my friends, but I would never think of acting in front of anyone else.
I think I have a certain awkwardness, and I don't know how that works on screen.
If a filmmaker is making a movie about a nice Midwestern family or a story that needs a very white character or a black or a Chinese, then I don't expect to go up for it. But I know, especially in places like New York, there's no excuse not to see various colors.
My first time nude was with a woman director, so I thought it would be easy, but it wasn't.
It's like everyone says they love my body, but then I'm supposed to lose weight.
