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That night, they meet again at a local club.
She doesnt even need to bring him home before her parents voice their disapproval.
(The movie isnt streaming anywhere at the moment, but there arewaysto not watch it not legally.)
And Choudhurys performance her first acting job ever!
was on the level of Frances McDormandsBlood Simpledebut or LaKeith Stanfields acting inShort Term 12.
Im so grateful for her.
I couldnt wing it anymore.
I kind of snuck into the drama department during university and fell in love with the idea of it.
I never thought Id be an actress; I just thought,Oh, I love this.
I had a stint doing some modeling, which was odd because Im five-foot-seven, and I wasnt skinny.
My agent was like, Theres this woman, Mira.
Shes looking for this girl to play one of the leads inMississippi Masala.
I knew Miras work from film school.
[The audition] was in Soho in London.
I didnt have money to get back home.
At that age, you dont think about it.
Youre just so excited.
I think I went in to read two or three times.
On the third time, Mira asked me to stay.
I was a bit confused because she said, It was so nice meeting you.
Thank you so much.
By the way, do you wanna have a drink later?
But the by the way didnt sound like I was going to get the role.
And I burst into tears!
I ran to a pay phone and called my parents collect, who were in Bangladesh.
Try and learn the lines.
She gave me some notes, and I did.
I just so wanted to work with her.
Maybe that helped my audition.
She had a keen intelligence, and I wanted to be around another Indian woman who had that.
I just wanted to be around her.
Can you tell me more about the difference in that extremeness?
I was getting so in my head.
When I met Mira, I saw someone who was physicalizing intelligence in a way I couldnt.
Id been a very physical person; I was obsessed with dance.
I remember that moment where I thought,Oh my God, this is what Ive been looking for.
She holds your attention.
Its all in her eyes.
When I met her, I was like,Whoa.
She makes me feel very awake.
What happened after your auditions and after you got the part?There was like a six-month waiting period.
I dont think I had the script yet at that point.
I just read it.
I still had that kind ofOh, this is going to be funfeeling.
It wasnt until rehearsal where I had to reckon with how much I didnt know.
He had such a presence.
For the most part during the rehearsals, I kept my head down.
I definitely was shy around him and aware that he had earned this badge and I hadnt.
But I had this freedom, again, because I didnt know anything.
I was just trying everything.
It would be interesting to ask him what he thought.
They were real rehearsals!
Mira directed us very specifically, and we got a lot of work done.
It was a great time.
Yeah, sure.I was in that phase, I think.
You dont have any references.
For my first job to be that part, my mind was so blown.
But also: This is your life!
I felt like Id better show up, because I dont want them to know that Im faking it.
What resonated with you about the Mina character?I understood her so completely.
Were you that rebellious?I think Im a very polite rebel.
I always go for what I want, but I never want to hurt peoples feelings.
I think a lot of rebels that I like have that quality, which allows them to go far.
Its not about wanting to defy my parents or wanting to break rules.
Shes just following love.
What happened when you finally started shooting in Mississippi?I havent revisited this for so long.
After those two weeks in New York, we moved to Greenwood, Mississippi, to a motel complex.
The way the motel was curved, you could kind of see everyones balcony.
It was so much fun.
The first week, we had costume fittings and rehearsals.
I couldnt stop laughing a little bit.
I could barely act with Ranjit Chowdhry because I kept laughing.
He just stared me down, like,Who is this kid that they got?
Where are you from?
I would be so excited to have a day off, even though I was so tired.
We would literally all go there to do normal things.
I hung out in the pool on weekends and slept a lot.
I remember thinking,Oh my God, Im so not popular!
That first week was about figuring out how to deal with blocking and words.
I definitely grew over the six weeks of shooting.
How so?I remember thinking,Okay.
Even though Im feeling scared and shy right now, I just have to stare this person down.
Right now, I have to steal this car.I just remember constantly being like,Get over yourself.
Get over your nerves.
No one cares.No one would see that.
I was almost having to rebel against myself to play Mina.
Culturally, it was like no other place.
But from the beautiful things and the non-beautiful things, they were all so unique to me.
There was a deep racism that was palpable, and I guess Id never really experienced or seen that.
But there was community in a way that was still beautiful.
It was very segregated.
Id never seen segregation.
If youre fair and poor, youll get married.
If youre dark and poor, no chance.
In our own groups, we know the rules and we know the internal racism.
In the middle of all the racial and class conflicts, this is still a love story.
Can you tell me about building out the Mina-Demetrius romance?
Theres so much chemistry there.Chemistry is an interesting thing because we dont know how chemistry reads.
I think that weird combination of reverence and deferring worked.
I remember, in some scenes, I couldnt look at him.
Because when I did, I felt like I would blush.
Holding back then allowed a little bit of growth for when Ididhave to look at him.
Denzel is very charismatic, and theres something very honorable about him.
Theres a structure to it.
And tension can look like chemistry and has the same quality.
When I showed up for that meeting, I had oiled my hair.
I dont know why!
Id never done it before in my life.
So as I go in, [the casting director] was the one to greet me first.
She looked at me and she goes, What did you do?
I was like, What?
And shes like, Yourhair!
I thought it was so cool.
When you have a lot of hair, you dont ever love what you have.
She was like, You have to go out, get it washed.
Andyoumake up a reason that youre late.
Like I told you, I didnt have money.
He was so bored of me, but he did it.
I went back to the audition.
That was the beginning of the hair thing, which clearly was more important than I realized then.
And I guess Mira filmed it a lot.
A lot is an understatement!
I put it back up and then it comes down again.
Mira let me do that a lot in the movie.
After this movie, I got so much love and no money.
No one [in Hollywood] knew what to do with me.
So then I come back to New York.
You feel like youre going to the next level, but youre not.
I did get frustrated.
And then, after that, I had an audition for a Shakespeare company.
I felt like I needed to start learning.
And so I did.
