A Deep Struggle, A Chat With Dileep Rao
Interview Date: 07/14/2010
Run Date: 07/16/2010
When we last left our old friend Dileep Rao, he was just coming off the success of his role as the beard-rific Rham Jas in Sam Raimi’s “Drag Me To Hell,” desperately dancing around telling me too much about his work as Dr. Max Patel in the then-still-upcoming “Avatar,” and unabashedly avoiding revealing what film he was about to begin.
That film, as we now know, was Christopher Nolan’s “Inception.” Seriously, how many actors have that kind of run with their first three motion pictures? Clearly, Dileep Rao is awesome…and if you doubt this, then consider that, as the release date of “Inception” became imminent, he approached me and asked, “Hey, are we going to do another interview?”
Why, yes. Yes, we are. Now if we could just do something about that cell phone reception…Dileep Rao: Hello, sir!
Bullz-Eye: Hello to you as well, sir! How are you?
DR: I’m really good. What’s going on?
Drag Me To Hell
Drag Me to Hell - Trailer
Uploaded by dreadcentral. - Watch feature films and entire TV shows.
Dileep Rao stars as Rham Jas: A young psychic who informs Christine that she is cursed. Rham Jas later introduces Christine to Shaun San Dena who has a seance with her.
I highly recommend watching this movie as Dileep makes a large role as a "psychic". He seems to always star as a smart guy in movies nowadays!
Dileep's bit on Inception
An in-depth interview surfaced by Vulture gives an analysis on Dileep Rao's answer for the end of the movie: Inception.
So what about the final shot, when the top seems like it could keep spinning before we cut to black. Let's call it the n-1 theory, where the whole film is all a dream, even the "reality" level. In other words, every level is one lower than we think it is.
This post had originally been found at Joblo by Paul Tassi.
Tell us what you think of the ending!
Dileep Rao vs Inception
Dileep Rao trained to be a surgeon. But after theatre and starring in two of the biggest hits of Hollywood, acting is his only call, says the Indian-American actor
By: Aseem Chhabra
When Dileep Rao read the script of Inception he understood most of the film. “We all got it to varying degrees,” says Rao, who plays Yusuf, the chemist in Christopher Nolan’s hugely popular cultural phenomenon of this summer.
“But when you make a movie you don’t need to know it all at the same time. It was really about what we were shooting at that moment and how it was informed by everything else.”
Inception was the second major film in less than a year for the Santa Monica-based Indian-American actor. He also played a slightly smaller role of Dr Max Patel in James Cameron’s mega-hit Avatar.
The back-to-back successes led New York magazine to refer to Rao as the Indian Will Smith. A trained stage actor, he has acted in one more film - Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell.
“I think Inception is original and doesn’t talk down to you,” Rao says, sipping his lemonade at a coffee shop in Manhattan.
The actor is currently in New York City rehearsing for an Off-Broadway play The Awesome Dance. “It is like a great meal with many flavors.
People see it again and again because they get it, but they are not entirely sure. Chris has the ability to unspool the narrative at a speed that confronts everybody.”
Son of immigrant Indian parents - an engineer father and a physicist mother - Rao does not reveal his age. “I play so many different ages that it helps me not to talk about it,” he smiles. He was born in Los Angeles, but as a child spent time in Saudi Arabia.
As many Indian-American children, Rao first chose a traditional career, training to become a surgeon at University of California, San Diego. But then was bitten by the acting bug. “There was something within me I wanted to express, something I wouldn’t be able to do, as a doctor,” he recalls. So he started taking acting classes.
“It was difficult for our family,” he says. “Our culture is so much about investing in our children and giving them opportunities. My parents really wanted me to be a doctor, but they accepted it reluctantly realising I was serious about acting.”
He graduated with an MFA degree from the prestigious American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. After school he worked in regional theatre for nearly a decade before landing the role in Avatar.
Those were years of struggle, partly because of his ethnicity and also due to the nature of the profession. “For me it was also a struggle with the craft,” he says. “It is pretty easy to try to be an actor, it is difficult to be a good actor, and almost impossible to be a great actor.”
He spent five months in New Zealand for Avatar and the same amount of time doing Inception. The toughest part of the latter was the physical challenge of stunts. “How many swordfights do you do acting Shakespeare?” he asks.
“You are not getting shot at, nor shooting weapons, or crashing vehicles. But Leonardo (DiCaprio), Joeseph (Gordon-Levitt) and Tom Hardy are so good at what they do. It was like a master class.”
While in theatre Rao never thought he would act in films where technology plays such a major role. “But at the end of the day it’s acting,” he says. “It’s still actors speaking and listening. The directors I have worked with make space for actors. They open technology so it is not in your face.”
Fame is catching up with Rao. He sometimes gets recognised on the streets. “They have that weird look when their eyes pop and they ask ‘Are you the guy in that movie?’” he laughs. Still it is better than DiCaprio’s situation as he rarely walks on the streets in New York. “After Titanic he was the most famous person on the earth. But he handles it well. He’s such a gentleman.”
ORIGINAL POST: http://fenilandbollywood.com/tag/dileep-rao-inception-yusuf/
Post Your Thoughts!
What movie do you think Dileep will be in next? This sleek and young Indian actor makes great movies.
Post your thoughts in the comments section below.
Post your thoughts in the comments section below.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
