'Life of Pi' star's first role could be his last
By Shilpa Jamkhandikar |
November 18, 2012, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
Suraj Sharma went from being a regular teenager growing up in New Delhi in India to starring in Ang Lee's big-screen adaptation of the bestselling novel "Life of Pi."
The 17-year-old Sharma was picked from more than 3,000 hopefuls to play Pi, an Indian boy who finds himself stranded on a lifeboat for 227 days with a Bengal Tiger.
Now 19, Sharma spoke about the film, acting with a computer-generated tiger and why "Life of Pi" may well be his first and last role.
Q: How did this film come about?
A: I was born and brought up in Delhi and my brother has acted in a couple of films. The auditions happened and the casting director was my brother's friend. I went to the auditions with my brother for moral support ... I didn't really want to act, but I don't know, it happened. They kept calling me back. And then they called and said you have to come to Mumbai to meet "Dao Yan." I call Mr Lee Dao Yan.
Q: What does it mean?
A: It means Mr Director in Chinese. I don't like calling him Ang, there is something not respectful about that ... Two weeks later, they said 'Hey, Suraj you have to come to Taiwan.' Funnily enough, even then I didn't believe I had got the role. You don't think things like that can happen to you."
Q: What was shooting in Taiwan like?
A: I did three months of training - swimming, sea skills, raft work - I even learned how to fillet fish. I also ate raw fish, but let's not talk about that. There was weight gain and eventually weight loss. I came in very skinny, like a weak little runt (laughs). Somehow we all went through Pi's journey together. There were many times where I felt that all of (us) together were Pi.
Q: What changed from the time you went for the audition to the moment when you got the role?
A: I had never acted before, but I knew I would like it. My brother and I would walk down streets being different people - that is the only acting I had ever done. I got exposed to real movie-making and how things are done. It's a lot of people who come together, a lot of dreams that come together. For me, I just want to be on set. I don't care what I would be. If it's acting, directing, if it is props, I don't care ... Things might get better or worse, but this will always be there. A part of me will always be stuck in Taiwan, on that boat.
Q: You had to shoot with a "fake" tiger for the most part. How do you emote in front of something that isn't there?
A: Don't call him fake. He was real to me (laughs). No, but for the most part, we were shooting in a big blue tank with blue walls and the blue sky above you. Everything was blue except for me and the raft.
We had four tigers trained as reference. I would watch them every day - how they would react to the water, the atmosphere, how they moved. I watched videos of tigers, I talked to the tiger trainer, and so you assemble this huge picture in your head. Initially it was a very conscious attempt to imagine the tiger on the boat. But later, it became real to me.
Q: What next?
A: I don't know whether I want to act. I might, I might not, depends on what comes my way. I want to be on set. I want to tell stories. I was really, truly possessed by being on set. I cannot get over that feeling. It was more than an adrenaline rush, that fire. That collaborative feeling; people come together and create something which goes on to touch a million hearts. It still hasn't sunk in, actually. Sometimes I think about the whole thing in the third person and it seems like a blur.
What the director says ...
Oscar-winning director Ang Lee said he worked hard during the four years of work on "Life of Pi" to give the US$100 million art house film appeal for general audiences.
The movie based on Yann Martel's imaginative book stars Indian Suraj Sharma, who plays a boy who drifts on the open sea with a Bengal tiger and a hyena after a ship carrying the rest of his family sinks.
"As an art house film, you can explore the philosophical issues," Lee said at a recent news conference. "But for a popular film, we also need to make the audience feel touched, and that was the difficult part."
Lee said initial reaction to the film had been positive, leaving him to conclude that his "risky experiment" would be a success.
A major problem in the filming, Lee said, was coping with animals on a roiling sea - a problem Lee solved by filming in 3D.
"As a new technology, 3D gives the film additional appeal," he said.
Much of the film was shot in Taiwan, Lee's home.
He said that one of the key settings - a large water tank built at a studio in the central city of Taichung - allowed the 150-strong foreign crew to use its imagination freely and not be constrained by traditional Hollywood production values.
"I was relieved that they enjoyed their work in Taiwan. ... We couldn't have made the film if it were not here because of all the help we received," Lee said.
"Life of Pi" is scheduled to premiere in Taiwan and the United States on Wednesday.
The 17-year-old Sharma was picked from more than 3,000 hopefuls to play Pi, an Indian boy who finds himself stranded on a lifeboat for 227 days with a Bengal Tiger.
Now 19, Sharma spoke about the film, acting with a computer-generated tiger and why "Life of Pi" may well be his first and last role.
Q: How did this film come about?
A: I was born and brought up in Delhi and my brother has acted in a couple of films. The auditions happened and the casting director was my brother's friend. I went to the auditions with my brother for moral support ... I didn't really want to act, but I don't know, it happened. They kept calling me back. And then they called and said you have to come to Mumbai to meet "Dao Yan." I call Mr Lee Dao Yan.
Q: What does it mean?
A: It means Mr Director in Chinese. I don't like calling him Ang, there is something not respectful about that ... Two weeks later, they said 'Hey, Suraj you have to come to Taiwan.' Funnily enough, even then I didn't believe I had got the role. You don't think things like that can happen to you."
Q: What was shooting in Taiwan like?
A: I did three months of training - swimming, sea skills, raft work - I even learned how to fillet fish. I also ate raw fish, but let's not talk about that. There was weight gain and eventually weight loss. I came in very skinny, like a weak little runt (laughs). Somehow we all went through Pi's journey together. There were many times where I felt that all of (us) together were Pi.
Q: What changed from the time you went for the audition to the moment when you got the role?
A: I had never acted before, but I knew I would like it. My brother and I would walk down streets being different people - that is the only acting I had ever done. I got exposed to real movie-making and how things are done. It's a lot of people who come together, a lot of dreams that come together. For me, I just want to be on set. I don't care what I would be. If it's acting, directing, if it is props, I don't care ... Things might get better or worse, but this will always be there. A part of me will always be stuck in Taiwan, on that boat.
Q: You had to shoot with a "fake" tiger for the most part. How do you emote in front of something that isn't there?
A: Don't call him fake. He was real to me (laughs). No, but for the most part, we were shooting in a big blue tank with blue walls and the blue sky above you. Everything was blue except for me and the raft.
We had four tigers trained as reference. I would watch them every day - how they would react to the water, the atmosphere, how they moved. I watched videos of tigers, I talked to the tiger trainer, and so you assemble this huge picture in your head. Initially it was a very conscious attempt to imagine the tiger on the boat. But later, it became real to me.
Q: What next?
A: I don't know whether I want to act. I might, I might not, depends on what comes my way. I want to be on set. I want to tell stories. I was really, truly possessed by being on set. I cannot get over that feeling. It was more than an adrenaline rush, that fire. That collaborative feeling; people come together and create something which goes on to touch a million hearts. It still hasn't sunk in, actually. Sometimes I think about the whole thing in the third person and it seems like a blur.
What the director says ...
Oscar-winning director Ang Lee said he worked hard during the four years of work on "Life of Pi" to give the US$100 million art house film appeal for general audiences.
The movie based on Yann Martel's imaginative book stars Indian Suraj Sharma, who plays a boy who drifts on the open sea with a Bengal tiger and a hyena after a ship carrying the rest of his family sinks.
"As an art house film, you can explore the philosophical issues," Lee said at a recent news conference. "But for a popular film, we also need to make the audience feel touched, and that was the difficult part."
Lee said initial reaction to the film had been positive, leaving him to conclude that his "risky experiment" would be a success.
A major problem in the filming, Lee said, was coping with animals on a roiling sea - a problem Lee solved by filming in 3D.
"As a new technology, 3D gives the film additional appeal," he said.
Much of the film was shot in Taiwan, Lee's home.
He said that one of the key settings - a large water tank built at a studio in the central city of Taichung - allowed the 150-strong foreign crew to use its imagination freely and not be constrained by traditional Hollywood production values.
"I was relieved that they enjoyed their work in Taiwan. ... We couldn't have made the film if it were not here because of all the help we received," Lee said.
"Life of Pi" is scheduled to premiere in Taiwan and the United States on Wednesday.
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