- 11 months ago
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00:00thank you so much firstly i've been seeing a lot of you this year i've been reviewing a few
00:09movies like empuran and was it kesari i want to say kesari as well and i was like and my first
00:15thought was like it's interesting they cast a white person how did they find him i want to know
00:21your backstory alex you need to tell me about being the diversity hire in a bollywood movie
00:26or a south indian movie well the diversity hire has become a very bad word in the u.s i am half
00:32american and half dutch um but i am proud i'm proud to be the diversity hire i will uh i will court
00:39controversy by saying that um look i'm glad that you've enjoyed some of my films over the past
00:44few weeks lucifer to empuran was such a huge production uh even though i was a very modest
00:49part of it it was a pleasure to work with mohan lal and prithviraj again now i think for the third or
00:56fourth time an amazing film i think that indian cinema will will be judged by before lucifer to
01:01empuran and after um it really sets the bar very very very high for international collaboration as
01:07well as the beauty the force with which uh that film uh was created and promoted uh and it's only the
01:14second of three so hopefully we'll see uh more of uh robert mccarthy uh in episode three um and you
01:22also mentioned case study two uh case chapter two is the the second time that uh i've worked with
01:28akshay kumar unfortunately this time most of my scenes ended up on the cutting room floor but that
01:33happened that's just how the business um and uh and then finally pule which uh is in theaters now
01:40as well uh that released on the 25th um a wonderful film by anand mahadevan uh starring prati gandhi
01:47petralika uh and a really nice positive role uh of someone who is rather layered in his um uh
01:57characterization he's very supportive of the pules and their you know their very um uh righteous mission
02:05um but also uh obviously has his own motivations so i don't want to ruin the film um because it's
02:12still in theaters so i don't want to ruin the film at all but it's still in theaters so check it out to
02:15see what i mean by that but yeah this counts something like 55 uh films and series over the
02:20past uh 15 years um and there's many more to come now alex what i am really uh proud about i mean when i
02:27see you is that you came to an industry that's unfamiliar to you uh hindi is not or hindi or malayalam
02:33they're not your real language right it's like me going to k-pop and trying to figure things out
02:38there or trying to do a k-pop journalism it's not easy because it's an it's not your reality
02:43what made you take the step to perhaps start with indian bollywood and malayalam movies i chose acting
02:51but then uh india chose me uh i i started acting when i was maybe 10 uh 12 i was a stage actor for 10
03:00years in the u.s um and i was traveling through asia and i got my first opportunity to um audition
03:06for a project uh here i'm actually right i'm right now in mumbai uh where i'm working on my next few
03:13films um but uh i'd auditioned for an ad and i made my way into my first film which was uh chini come
03:21in 2007 with amita bachan and taboo uh and it was such a successful film that even though my role was
03:29just a comedic uh interjection every few scenes i would pop up and uh meet up and i would have a
03:35bit of a banter um people recognized it noticed it and uh opportunities not flooded but opportunities
03:43came and i i i guess the secret to my whatever limited success i've had is just saying yes over
03:50and over again saying yes even when natch balie um which is for for those that don't know it's kind
03:55of like the dancing with the stars of india when when that project opportunity came i said yes why
04:01not even though i'm a horrible dancer but terrible dancer uh i still said yes um and uh so when when
04:07malayalam film uh came with my my debut uh was urmi with uh coincidentally with prithviraj uh and
04:16uh prabhadeva engineer leader susa um and pithya balan so that film came along i said yes madrasa
04:23patnam amy jackson's first movie my first film in tamil that came along and i just said yes so
04:29i guess it's just a matter of continuing to say yes and people continuing to recommend me the people
04:35that i work with in projects tend to move on to other projects and and thankfully they give me a call
04:40when i talk to casting directors uh in in bollywood they say that they often take white or fair skin
04:47people just for perhaps it looks better on screen or our obsession with fair skin does that happen
04:52does token hiring happen in uh bollywood and south indian cinema according to you or are you
04:58are you only looking at uh serious roles like roles where you have something to do well i mean
05:04that's two questions does does token hiring happen yeah of course it does uh you want to set a scene
05:09that you're shooting in mumbai but uh it's the interiors of a hotel and you're saying that hotel
05:15is in london of course you're gonna hire a whole bunch of people that look like they live in london
05:18they'll be white they'll be black they'll be asian and you'll put them in the ballroom and it'll
05:23look like you're you're you're shooting it on location in the uk um so yeah absolutely that's that's
05:29absolutely true um but the second question is is that what i do no uh if you if you have any uh
05:35um uh experience watching any of my projects um for example a vatan mere vatan that was a a lead role
05:42with sarah ali khan emran hashmi yes it is set on the eve of independence in the 40s um but it's an
05:49incredibly interesting film but if you want to go even farther towards the um the the non-characteristic
05:55casting of a white person if that's the question yeah then look at aria ramadvani cast me as an
06:01american that comes to india um falls in love with an indian girl uh and recites sanskrit uh
06:08shlokas from the bhagavad-gita um so a very interesting decision uh with regards to the
06:14creation of a character look at mayor charles another excellent film uh randeep huda and i um
06:19where uh we go on the run after our escape from tihar prison yeah to answer your question sure there is
06:25there is that kind of casting uh do i know much about that world not really i i am really keen to
06:32continue making films in which i can contribute in some way alex you need to tell me like how
06:37has india embraced you completely like do you feel more of an indian now now that you work in this
06:43industry you kind of deal with all of us you know the malayalism i'm sure cheta and all of that you
06:48would know or you would speak hindi as well fluently has india embraced you
06:54mera films hindi me bengali me malayalam me to uh her industry jee they have accepted me to an extent
07:07uh i do feel at home in india um 20 years ago 55 films and series so it's been a long journey
07:15um but it's been a very interesting one i i feel incredibly privileged to have shot everywhere
07:22from lay ladakh in places where um many of my indian friends have never been to to the the depths
07:29of kerala to um far in the east uh sikkim in in the north i've had an opportunity to learn so much
07:37about indian history not only the colonial period but having played vasco da gama in the 1600s
07:42um having played his son as well um having worked on contemporary films like lucifer 2 and puran
07:49having had the opportunity to do in switzerland for my my debut bengali feature athi abhijan
07:54and to have worked with such incredible technicians and actors from amita bachan as we talked to
07:59prasenji chatterjee to dev adhikari to randipuda to akshay kumar yeah um it's been a wonderful
08:06experience working not only in the industry but with the folks that work you know at the top of their
08:12game and what can hollywood learn from bollywood wow that's an interesting question um well i think
08:19that hollywood could learn from and these are very kind of vague terms hollywood let's say what what
08:25can american cinema learn from indian cinema well one thing that bengali cinema can teach indian uh
08:32sorry uh american cinema is how to stretch every last penny we make some beautiful cinema in west
08:38bengal um on a budget that my american friends would never believe and the reason is because um
08:45the the market is rather small it's just uh bangladesh and west bengal and the bengali diaspora
08:52and so you can only sell so many tickets so you really do need if you want to make a great film
08:58you really do have to stretch every last bit of your budget um something that uh american cinema could
09:05learn from bollywood would be that people really do like song and dance crowd pleasers we make one
09:12or two of those a year in the u.s la la land for example or a star is born um it's not really the
09:19norm and i think there could be more there's some great great song and dance cinema coming out of the
09:23u.s but there's more of an appetite than i think is quenched and i think that's why a lot of people are
09:28looking from the u.s and the uae and all over the world towards indian cinema so there's a lot that
09:34can be learned as as we go back and forth but the wonderful thing that we've we've just both agreed
09:39on is the fact that when projects uh are made nowadays they travel so much better because of
09:45the ott platforms bringing them around the world and so whereas before you'd have to really look
09:52for a hindi film um or you'd have to catch it in theaters in in wherever the the indian community
09:58is in your particular city now you can find it rather easily um or much much more easily than
10:05before let's say that alex i love the fact that you learned hindi like there's a good chance that
10:11you could have perhaps gotten away with not knowing it somebody else dubs it for you etc what what made
10:17you really did you know that i'm in it for the long run here well first of all it's not that easy
10:22to have somebody dub it for you um to get some we in in india we don't do a whole lot of sync sound
10:29so we do dub almost everything but i dub my own voice because it drives me nuts if i did i think uh
10:35two ads where someone else did my voice and it drove me absolutely insane it looks so weird
10:40absolutely like i can't it makes me nauseous to watch it even though i'm sure the dubbing person was
10:46like giving their heart and soul but it just doesn't match uh the breaths aren't in the right
10:52place the the intonation isn't there in the right place so even me doing a bad job on my own dubbing
10:59is better than someone else doing a great job on my dubbing um so it's not that easy uh and and
11:05mainly because uh your mouth you can't really put more syllables into what your mouth has enunciated
11:12you you can't add or subtract and this is actually something that that does drive me nuts with my own
11:17dubbing is i always go into the studio thinking i'm going to make my performance better with my
11:22dubbing performance but it never works that way you are really really stuck with the performance that
11:29you gave on screen um and you just have to try to as closely as possible get the same exact performance
11:36that's in the pilot and the pilot is what's been captured by the um by the microphones that are
11:42either on your lapel or in boom um but there's just so much noise and and it's impossible to use sync
11:48sound for most cases in india so it's not that easy um but look living and working in india for so many
11:54years uh i did study obviously i did have a tutor that i worked with um but mainly in the context of film
12:02uh you know i was having a few conversations the other day that had nothing to do with film and i
12:07was having a conversation in hindi and my vocabulary was so small but when i talk about film i i can i can
12:13talk for a little while so my hindi is very contextual uh i'm very good in a taxi or a rickshaw
12:19i am okay discussing my movies um but if we start talking about business or finance or
12:27anything else really i'm completely lost uh so it's very contextual it is a lot of hard work but
12:35more than anything uh what i try to do is i try to make sure that i don't get in the way of
12:42the audience enjoying the story or or getting drawn into the story so i i always shoot for a hundred
12:48percent in my hindi and in my bengali i have a film releasing um in a few months that uh uh in which i
12:56play um a man who grew up in west bengal in kolkata and so he has to speak perfect bengali so i shoot for
13:04a hundred percent knowing i will never get near that but my real goal is that when people watch it
13:09they don't have to read the subtitles or they don't think oh what did he just say or it doesn't sound
13:15wrong i want them to just think back and think oh wow yeah there was a white guy in that movie but i
13:21i i i couldn't um i didn't have to struggle to understand him so i was never pulled out of the
13:27story right that's my real goal um and so to that end i i work endlessly uh and merebatan was one
13:35example where i i had a lot of hindi uh that i had to learn another would be aria where i had a lot
13:41a lot of sanskrit to learn and uh and i have my own process you know i i work with my trainer i
13:47record it i listen to it in my ears i listen to that recording when i'm running when i'm working
13:51out when i'm lifting um and and after a while it it sticks and uh i just recognize that i need to
14:00prepare a lot more than than people who are very good at languages have to i have to put in much more
14:07work just like with dancing alex i have to say my pet peeve is like white people speaking hindi
14:13because it just sounds unnatural to our ear but can i just tell you you are far less annoying
14:18and that's a compliment it's i promise you it's a compliment because oh i will take it as a
14:25compliment you are far less annoying alex look i don't mind being annoying as long as i don't pull
14:32you out of the story my goal is not to adhere myself to the audience's heart and soul my goal is
14:38to help tell the story and i i'm just incredibly grateful to be called upon again and again to tell
14:43interesting important captivating stories i just want to do my part in making that story
14:49as compelling as possible and and so language is one component of that i take it very very seriously
14:54and i work very hard to be as uh as unannoying as possible you worked with some of the biggest
15:00superstars mohalal is like a god in malayalam cinema anything that man touches turns into gold
15:06he's still bankable he still sells the story beautifully like you said it's all about the
15:12story akshay kumar again another hit machine he can sell anything sand to the desert that kind of
15:18last of the superstars standing so to speak what was it like working uh do you learn a lot from them or do
15:25you just observe them how does it work i have a very unique perspective uh i don't get starstruck by
15:31um generally by by any of the superstars of india and the reason is because i was introduced to
15:38indian cinema in my mid-20s when i began working in indian cinema and so of course when i went on set
15:45for chinikam and i was working face to face with uh mr bachan i recognized who he is uh i i obviously was
15:52not completely unaware of the people that i'm working with i did my research to figure out who is tabu who is
15:59r balki who is amita bachan and obviously the rest of the cast that i was working with um but i didn't
16:06grow up with them being the personification of cinema for me um the personification of cinema for me
16:12uh is a completely different universe and if i was to come across those folks sure i i would be
16:20starstruck i i would i would uh i'd be nervous it may be difficult for me to do my job um however
16:27because i came across indian cinema as an adult i meet these folks of course with the respect that
16:34is due to a superstar but more than that as a scene partner as someone who's trying to do the best
16:39possible job that they can do so that that person looks good and i don't mean to sound arrogant
16:44obviously akshay kumar is going to look great regardless of what i do but i want to give my cues
16:50i want to perform to the best of my ability so that he also can feed off of that you know acting is
16:55reacting so that is how i i enter a film set um not with a oh i want to take a picture with him i you
17:04know this will be great for my career uh i've watched him since i was five years old um he's the
17:10biggest superstar that i can imagine working with it's a different perspective that i come with um it is
17:16with no less respect perhaps it's more clear-eyed uh than if i was a fan of them from my childhood
17:22but yeah it is always a learning experience working uh with people that have more experience
17:27and everyone that we've spoken about just now has much more experience than i at least i'm not
17:32starstruck and i can really accept those lessons in a sense that maybe others can't um and i'm always
17:39appreciative of the opportunity to work with with akshay as you brought up yes he's absolutely a hit
17:44maker mohan lal as well um akshay and i now have done uh two films together and hopefully a third
17:50very soon um our first didn't do so well our second is doing quite well it's still in theaters
17:55uh hopefully our third will surpass both um but but yeah the lessons that i learned from them and each
18:02interaction are are extremely valuable and they they stick with me more than anything as an actor
18:08you need to tell me what's the biggest stereotype about you that you wish to shatter
18:11through your films i don't know if i want to dispel it but i will i will i will tell you a little bit
18:17of a secret uh that language does not come easy to me so i have had the wonderful reviews for especially
18:25for a film like evatan merevatan where i was compared to the great tom alter uh who was not only a
18:31phenomenal actor but also just a brilliant linguist he could speak urdu he could speak hindi
18:37and flawlessly he actually wrote poetry in both languages in all three languages english as well
18:43um so i think the best compliment but the most misunderstood thing about me is that my performance
18:51in hindi or in in in sanskrit when i have performed in it is that it is flawless and and that it is
18:58effortless that's the word that's the word that's what i was searching for so i actually read reviews
19:02where it said alex's hindi is effortless and at the same time i was thinking uh great but
19:09also thinking no the the amount of effort that goes into every scene that i do in a language that is
19:16not my own whether that's uh hindi or bengali it is hundreds of hours um i don't think people understand
19:23just how difficult it is uh to try to perform um in a way that looks effortless um so so that is
19:33something that i both want to dispel but also don't want to dispel um the reason why i would want to
19:38dispel it is because i would like the editors to know just how much work goes into performing those
19:44scenes in other languages so that they don't cut them out of the movies have you started getting used
19:49to the idea that you might work for many scenes in a movie but it might never reach the big screens
19:55because at some point between you know they make choices right and often it's like joey and friends
20:01where he calls his nana to watch it and his his scene has gotten cut off you know things like that
20:06does it happen to you have gotten used to that rejection of it is rejection right you work for it
20:11so this is the story of of uh case study chapter two um a lot of really good scenes that i wish
20:19had ended up uh in the final cut uh were not there another good example would be ruhi uh which was me
20:26and rajkumar rao john v kapoor uh once again similar situation i think it's not a well-kept secret but a bit
20:33of a secret is that generally a lot of directors will shoot much more than they need and i think it's not
20:39an intentional thing but you just think more is going to fit into two hours than actually does
20:44a film like case study chapter two by the end of the shooting i think they could have made a four-hour
20:50movie um same thing with ruhi uh and so at some point they have to make a decision and those things
20:57that are furthest from the very central plot of the story are the things that get cut first do i take
21:04that as uh as an insult absolutely not is it unfortunate it is because you want to see all
21:11of your scenes make it to the final cut pule is a good example where every single frame i shot is in
21:16the final cut lucifer 2 m puran same every single frame is in the final cut and many of my films are
21:22like that um some of my films are still waiting to release at all and some of them have been in that
21:27stage for years and i i worry that maybe they never will release and that also is very very
21:32unfortunate um but when it comes to scenes being cut in a film it hurts emotionally but intellectually
21:39you understand because when you see the final cut and you know the scenes that were cut you recognize
21:44why they were and uh we try as much as possible to condense the screenplay so that everything
21:50in the screenplay makes it to the screen because obviously you're losing money you're burning your
21:55actors you're you're spending a lot of time um and none of that is in service of the final edit of
22:02the film gone are the days where actors are just actors now actors do a lot more than just act in the
22:07movies you have a side hustle what's your side hustle i'm a musician i actually have a music career
22:14uh in south africa i have three songs on the radio right now um i've released eight songs over the over
22:19the past six or seven years um please do check them out they're available on all of the streaming
22:25platforms they're in the uae as well um on the international platforms like spotify uh amazon
22:32um even title and deezer and pandora in the u.s um you can find all of my music under a l e x x o n e l l
22:41and all of my songs have music videos if you go to uh youtube my official artist channel alex o'nell
22:47music on youtube you'll find all of my music videos there so i i'm really really really happy with the
22:54success that my music has had uh in south africa because it's it's english music so it never really
22:59did so well here in india even though radio one here in india the the one english radio station that
23:05we have in india does play my music which is wonderful um i i'm glad that uh it has uh it has
23:13reached a a lovely audience there uh in south africa but with that said i'm you know we were talking about
23:19this earlier how ott has meant that content from one reason will travel to another uh i'm always
23:25excited to see the comments on my music coming from folks that know me as an actor here in india
23:30and and comments on films coming from my friends in south africa in the u.s and europe uh saying wow
23:38i knew you were a musician i had no idea that you did this movie and i'm thinking well they didn't just
23:42do that movie i've actually done 55 movies but this is the beginning of a conversation it's really cool
23:48my my side hustle being uh an entirely different career um and uh i i really do come to india um mostly
23:56nowadays even though i love the country and i've got such a wonderful group of friends here uh i really
24:01only get the opportunity to come here when i'm shooting and when i'm promoting my films
24:05awesome bye-bye
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