If I hadn't left South Africa, I felt I was at risk of being pigeonholed. I looked around and saw actors who, 10 to 15 years into their careers, were still playing stereotypical Afrikaans characters, stereotyped Indian characters. That was not something that I wanted for myself.
I've been a huge fan of Quvenzhane Wallis since 'Beasts of the Southern Wild.' To me, she's our Shirley Temple, a phenomenal talent, and I wanted to work with her as soon as I saw that movie.
Growing up, I didn't know about the Japanese internment camps until I saw a movie of the week as an adult. I remember going, 'How come that wasn't covered in history class?' Moving to California, you run into people whose grandparents lost everything and their businesses and were put in these internment camps.
I saw Mani sir's 'Bombay,' and I wanted to be a Mani sir heroine.
I do not experiment very much and prefer the kind of clothes that Sabyasachi designs - they are rooted in our traditions and yet are very modern. I think it has something to do with my growing-up years and the kind of clothes I saw around me.
Well, obviously I'm not Mark Wahlberg - I have much better abs and I look much better in a pair of Calvin Kleins but when I saw Mark Wahlberg interacting with the world, I realised that his stardom was sort of a result of the movies he had done and the publicity that he had got and the work that he did.
There have been a handful of assignments over the years that I've had to turn down due to time constraints, and I was fairly envious when I saw the finished product, beautifully illustrated by someone else.
I started buying ill, obscure records, and then I saw Portishead and Air live, and my mouth was on the ground.
I've been painting and drawing fish since I was very young. My mom found old pictures I did when I was around 6 or 7 of all these sharks and scuba diver looking back, a big ship, throwing a harpoon. There was already a message within what I saw.
I saw 'Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs' when it came out, didn't like it too much. I found she was stupid.
