When we started work on 'Baahubali,' my sheer aim was to be able to live up to the imagination that Rajamouli sir had in mind. As an actor, my intention was to bring up 'Baahubali' live on screen for the audiences. I never even expected in my wildest of dreams that the film would grow on to become a phenomenon of sorts.
You, the actor, must be aware of when you're being funny, but the character you're playing should always be oblivious to the fact.
There's nothing I dislike more than being in a photo shoot where they say, 'Be yourself.' That's not why I became an actress. That's what I find so funny: that you become an actor, and all of a sudden, everyone wants to know about you. But I didn't become an actor so I could show you me.
As an actor, I've always been interested in making sure I can perform the role and the lines in the way the writer intended.
I try to give each performance my own soul, to bring a truth to my character. Hopefully, when I bring that much truth to a character, it resonates with somebody, and it sparks some kind of emotion in them.
You must be so thoroughly immersed in the given circumstances of the play, then you decide what it is at any given moment what that the actor wants.
If people liked seeing me in loverboy roles, I don't intend to break that.
Knowing what thought process goes into constructing a line helps an actor know how to deliver that line because you understand the intention behind the writing.
I am not a person who just wants to be an actor. Do you know what I mean? I am an artist who wants to speak to people through his work: through his vessel.
I didn't go to drama school to be a musical theatre performer. I enjoyed it, but I didn't go to do that; I went to be an actor.
The danger of course is always is caricature. The biggest challenge was to sound like Nelson Mandela. Everything else is easy to do, walk like him. He has a few ticks and things I noticed that I picked up. I didn't have any agenda, as it were, in playing the role other than to bring it as close to reality as I possibly could.
I want people to see my heart, what I feel - not as one of America's best black actors but as one of the best actors.
Actors tend to not know how their performances are going to actually be used. Even though the script says one thing, in the edit, it can be something else.
You can't dictate if a character's going to come off as sympathetic to an audience. I just tried to play it as honest as possible.
I don't play bad guys. I think that's why I keep getting cast as bad guys: because I don't want to play bad guys. I want to play human beings that struggle with life.
Because the intention wasn't always to be an actor, that hasn't been my number one guiding principle.
'The Count' wasn't a real stretch. I was doing pretty generic Bela Lugosi bad vampire on purpose. It was supposed to be lame. I didn't put fangs on; it was a guy who was just going through the motions. I drew on the widow's peak with eyebrow pencil and wore a turtleneck, not a tux.
