Dev Patel, starry knight
something more to give, and when his mother saw a casting advertisement for “Skins,” a teen drama that would supercharge the careers of young actors such as Nicholas Hoult and Daniel Kaluuya, she prodded him to audition for the role of sex-crazy Anwar.
The show was a hit, but the neighbors were horrified. “It felt like suicide in the community to put your kid into a TV show and let him drop out of school at 16,” Patel said. “While everyone else’s kid is off becoming a doctor or a dentist, I’m here on this TV show,” he said, “simulating sex and taking drugs.”
He had never acted on camera before, and “Skins” was a trial by fire. The money was good enough to improve his family’s situation, but the show’s large following cut both ways.
“I was a young kid going on these chat rooms, and it was quite brutal,” Patel said. “There were all these lists of who’s the favorite character on the show or who was the best looking character, and I was always the ugliest, the least attractive. No one liked Anwar. It really took a toll on me personally.”
Maybe that’s why he still mistrusts compliments 15 years later, or why he makes fun of himself before anyone else might get the chance. Even when “Slumdog Millionaire” won best picture at the 2009 Oscars or when, eight years later, Patel received a supporting-actor nomination for the drama “Lion,” all that attention made him uneasy.
“I didn’t feel worthy,” he said. “That kind of speaks to my natural low selfesteem: You’re there with really impressive creatures, the best of the best, and you’re like, ‘I don’t know what I have to offer in this space.’ ”
Now, authenticity is Patel’s watchword; if he can’t make a movie feel real to him, it’s not worth doing.
By way of explaining, Patel talked about landing the role of the teenage striver in “Slumdog Millionaire,” an audition he got because the daughter of the director, Danny Boyle, was a fan of “Skins.” Patel was full of manic energy during the audition, using every trick he could think of to earn laughs. But afterward, Boyle took the actor aside and told him that if he were hired, he’d have to learn to be still. Could he leave enough room for the audience to enter the film through his eyes?
“At the time, I was 17,” Patel said, “and I was like, ‘Well, that’s not acting. That’s just lazy!’ ” But over the course of his career, he has begun to understand what Boyle meant: All you really have to do is be present. A movie star knows that’s enough.
That’s why the most exciting thing for Patel now is when he plays a role that lets him simply be. With its long, meditative scenes set in real locations, “The Green Knight” delivered that feeling in spades:
Even when he was astride Armani and the rain hurled by the wind felt like bullets hitting his skin, Patel wouldn’t have traded the truth of that moment for anything. It’s the reason he does what he does, when all that’s left is him, the camera, and something powerful and innate that commands attention.
“There’s a moment between ‘action’ and ‘cut’ that is like a drug,” Patel said. “If you’re with the right filmmaker on the right set with the right script, everything just dissolves away.” He likened it to the flow state reached by great athletes, or even to Kate Winslet on the prow of the Titanic: “And there’s a metaphorical (Leonardo) DiCaprio behind me,” he said, extending his long arms and grinning.