An Interview with Dileep Rao, One of the Stars of Avatar: Part 2

As promised here is part 2 of my interview with Dileep Rao. I honestly have to say now that I have seen Avatar, it is pretty mindboggling; what it would be like if that was your first major motion picture you acted in. It also gave me all the more respect for Dileep in how honest and down to earth he was during the interview. In this half he will talk about what it was like working on Drag Me to Hell with Sam Raimi and I will try to pry some details of Inception out Christopher Nolan’s newest film, which is actually rather timely since the newest French trailer for the film was released and recently pulled from the internets, pretty quickly. So enjoy and happy holidays!

After Avatar you landed a starring role on Sam Raimi’s much anticipated return to horror, Drag Me to Hell talk about lucky, how did landing that role come about, and were you a fan Raimi’s before you got the role in his film?

OF COURSE! I was a huge fan of Sam’s movies, the very first movie I saw Sam’s was Dark Man, and then my friend was like “Didn’t you know this guy made The Evil Dead?” I was like what is that? And he was like, “you’re an idiot.” We immediately go in his dorm room and he puts on this videotape, I watch this movie and I am completely hypnotized by it. Because the movie is so immediate a film, it is just so sensory overload, and it is such an act of love, you can feel the love that went into that film as grotesque and hilarious as it can be.  It’s a handmade movie and you feel the love of that in that movie especially the first one. My favorite films of Sam’s are A Simple Plan it’s just an amazing, amazing movie and Spiderman 2, which I think is a masterpiece as well. I was always a fan, and it was always a fantasy of mine to work with him.

I always knew he always tends to work with famous actors, you know he is big-time and can get what he wants. When I did the audition I was in New Zealand and Still shooting Avatar I didn’t have to shoot for a couple of days, and I got the audition through the internet. I was going to audition on tape and Fed-Ex it to LA, and there was some delays. There was some scheduling quirks I was able to combat and I was able to audition in person. I ended up auditioning for something else when I came out and when I got out I had like 4 messages on my phone, and I was like, “whoa this is weird.” So I checked them and the very first one was someone just giving me directions to the Fox lot. Then my agents called and said, your just going to meet him there is no audition. So I had already auditioned, because he had seen my tape so we just shook hands and that was it I was in. I gave him my thoughts on the character, and just started going from there. It was a dream experience, I loved working with Sam Raimi, I would do anything to work with him. I think we have a strong understanding of each other and  I look forward to working with him again.

I loved you performance in Drag Me to Hell you really took what could have been just a one dimensional stereotypical character and not only gave him some serious depth but made him the most likable character in the film, what was your inspiration for that performance and was that how it was originally scripted?

It’s hard to remember that first impression although, I thought he was a cool character in that he didn’t just have to be a font of knowledge and he had this experience with Christine Brown which was more personal. As soon as I get a job like that, it becomes totally assumed in my body, assumed into my person. So I started my research read a lot of books and I started to read about the occult and belief practices. I come from a family of science, so I looked at it as if I were a scientific investigator in these things,  and that kind of phenomena was not so foreign to me. Being a person of cutting edge investigation I think the guy would do it that way, so I just broadened out who he was.

The when I first rehearsed with Allison who was such a great actress, so talented and so immediate and personal in her work, the first thing we rehearsed together I think we kinda had that quick instant chemistry. Like, I am totally going to like working together because I love your acting and that made it more so much more kind of personal character, and a personal relationship instead of being just like, “Here’s your exposition, now do what you have to do.”  So I think that made it easier for me, because me, Sam and Allison all just kind of bonded on the material and in our scenes you can really feel that. It’s a tribute to Sam’s collaborative spirit and his ability to make it feel like that, when it feels like he has his hands in it, more than it feels like he does you know what I mean.

What was it like going from working with a legend in sci-fi such as Cameron and then working with a legend in horror like Sam Raimi and then going straight to Christopher Nolan’s first film since the Dark Knight?  For such a short film career you have had a pretty unbelievable one.

You know, yeah it’s totally crazy and I don’t take any credit for it, I was just fortunate that the stars were able to line up for me, and I was able to work with some of the best people around. Every single time, I feel like I was figuratively struck by lightning, because it’s so out of the blue usually and I am auditioning for stuff that I don’t get or like as much. Then with the Christopher Nolan thing, I knew he was going to make another movie, I had no idea what it was about and I just wanted to be seen. Some things just lined up where certain people knew certain people, and there was a role that was right for me. He asked me to audition and I flew back from New York City where I was reading a film for the Sundance Festival. I was supposed to go to Sundance for another director, Ritesh Batra, to workshop a film. I hoped on a plane flew back to LA, auditioned once, auditioned twice and I got this phone call when I got back from Cannes with Drag Me, and they were like we want you to start work, and your in. I screamed, like I do every time I get a job, it’s such a blessing, it’s such an incredible honor to be a part of these works of art by these great artists.

Chris is my generation; he is a younger director so there is that incredible precocity of the fact that he has reached that height that Jim has at his age, he has done the same thing. But your there for his rise, he has only made like five or six films, of which I would put three or more at the top of the decade. He has a lot of Cameron and Kubrick in him as well, in terms of his totality of understanding of how movies are made; comprehensively because he made them at such a young age. He also has an aesthetic that is really cool to me because he really likes to do a lot of things in camera. So we are doing a lot of stunt stuff and there is a lot of things I have never done before and it’s really broadened my experience. It was just an honor to work with him, he is a tough director he works hard and makes sure everything works the way it supposed to be. I got the chance to work with some of the greatest actors in my generation and out of my generation, not to mention that cast which is one of the greatest casts I have ever heard of, or been in. It was an honor to be in that picture and I can’t wait for people to see that when it comes out next summer, I think it’s going to blow some minds.

Can you tell us a bit about your role in Christopher Nolan’s Inception or is it too early for that one? I saw the trailer for it and it looked insane to say the least.

I literally can’t say anything. Because I respect him I think we should leave it to him to let the film reveal itself.

So what’s next? Sky is the limit!

Well yes and no, yes well I have more opportunities now, then I have had before. But at the same time it’s funny because the stuff in front of you isn’t always the stuff you want to do. It’s about being grateful and giving back to people who have given me so much. I can’t wait to go out and celebrate the opening of Avatar with Jim and all the other actors and to see how the picture came out. I’ll play it by ear, I don’t know yet actually to be honest with you.

And my final question I know your also known as a world traveler have you ever been to Philadelphia?

Yeah, I have one of the first jobs I had at a drama school was to understudy in national tour of a play called The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife and I took it around the country and it played in Philadelphia at the Forest theatre.  I stayed in Rittenhouse Square for about 2 and a half weeks. I ate at Striped Bass and I ate at Le Bec Fin. I have family around there actually some of my cousins live in Bucks County. They are from there and are very good friends of mine, they are my family and I love them very dearly.

I would also like to give a quick shout-out to another friend in Philadelphia area Joe Hortua the writer and his wife Beth are good friends of mine as well as his kids Pablo and Milan.