London: Actor Dev Patel says he doesn’t feel comfortable playing the lead character in a large movie and prefers to be part of an ensemble cast in a smaller production.
The Slumdog Millionaire star describes his time on M Night Shyamalan’s film The Last Airbender horrendous and said he enjoyed doing his latest project The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, reported Contactmusic.
“Working on something that big and trying to get heard as an actor is tricky. You feel so diluted and worthless. I would happily shape my career doing great low-budget indies like that. I’m not that hero-type dude, so I’m never going to be playing the handsome lead character,” Patel said.
The actor feels like he is still growing up and that is one of the reasons he was attracted to his character Sonny in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
“That’s another reason why Sonny is so related to me – this guy is growing a man. He has a saying, ‘Everything will be alright in the end. But if it’s not alright then it’s not yet the end’,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dev’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel co-star actor Tom Wilkinson admits he struggled to deal with the “enormity” of India while shooting for his film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
The British star, who spent months filming in Jaipur and Udaipur for his new movie, said he was shocked by the contrast between poor and wealthy areas, reported Bang Showbiz.
“It’s like going to a different planet. It changes you. The sheer enormity of what you’re looking at – the range of problems, poverty.There’s tremendous wealth and seemingly a reluctance to do anything about it. You’d think they would use this money to lift people out of poverty – to put a roof over their head or something,” Wilkinson said.
The actor also said he took on the role because he wanted to visit the country, but has no plans to return in the future.
“I was intrigued by the prospect of working in India. I enjoyed the process – not least because there was unfamiliar things happening to me that I wasn’t necessarily comfortable with – but I was interested in being the character. Would I go back there again voluntarily without work? No,” he said. (PTI)
