Into the Dileep

I got to interview someone who was in Inception. INCEPTION! It’s like getting to interview someone from Brick but on a much more widely appreciated scale! Said person is Dileep Rao, also known as “that Indian guy” from Drag Me To Hell, Avatar and, yes, Inception. Coming from a theatre background originally, Rao has had incredible career. With only three movies under his belt, his box office average is over $363 million in the US and $1.2 billion worldwide, which is freakin’ insane and largely thanks to the huge success of his trio of features. Anywho, Rao is a clever and well-spoken lad and I had the chance to interview him last week ahead of his appearance at the Supernova Pop Culture Expo in Brisbane this weekend. Because it just wouldn’t be fair to give you interview snippets, here’s my full transcript with Rao where we discuss Inception, Nolan, Will Smith, Inception sequels, that ending, geeks, a possible role in The Dark Knight Rises and Inception. Movie Mazzupial: It’s lovely to talk to you Dileep, where are you talking to me from? Dileep Rao: I’m in California, based in Santa Monica there. MM: Now you’re coming to Australia for the Supernova Pop Culture Expo, is it your first visit here? DR: Yeah, it is. MM: Great, any touristy things you’re looking forward to doing? DR: I’m looking forward to doing the non-stereotypical touristy things. I want to see the town get lost a bit and see what I like. As soon as I find my hotel I like to go and get lost in the crowd of the city a bit. MM: Now, I’ve got to say, this is kind of surreal for me to interview someone from one of my favourite films of all time – Inception. But I suppose you get that a lot? DR: Thank you, that’s great to hear. It’s funny, out of all three of the films I’ve done I always get people coming up to me and saying Inception is one of their favourite films of all time, I’m honoured by that, it’s very moving. The boldness and intellect of Inception is great and people feel rewarded by that and have strong feelings about it. It’s nice and refreshing to see a movie that’s powerful and intellectually challenging within a blockbuster. MM: Definitely. Tell me about that experience, what was it like working with Chris (Nolan)? I mean, he’s kind of considered the new Stanley Kubrick right? DR: I’ve read that a lot and it’s not fair to put the burden of that on him. Stanley Kubrick has a whole career of films and has passed on, whereas Chris is still a young filmmaker. I’m the first person to champion and applaud Chris and there’s no doubt he’s one of the greatest filmmakers living. He’s one of the greatest living directors, I love working with him. He’s brilliant. It’s very unusual to have all these different movies from one person and in different genres. In that way he’s like Kurbrick. He had magic in The Prestige, then goes and does a comic book movie; he’s a masterful storyteller and a great writer. In fact, his writing is equal in quality to his filmmaking. MM: Yeah, that’s definitely one of the great things about him. Now, back to Inception, you got to slap Joseph Gordon Levitt! How awesome was that? DR: (Laughs) We had a lot of fun doing that scene because he had to just sit there, while Tom Hardy, who was in the background, and I would be just cracking up. Joseph couldn’t do anything, he just had to sit there and not react and we would be laughing like crazy. It was one of my favourite days on set. MM: Speaking of the set, it must have been an incredible experience working with such an incredibly talented cast and group of filmmakers. DR: It was like the 1927 New York Yankees but with the greatest actors in the world all in one room. Leonardo (DiCaprio) has been doing this for so long and is one of the greatest of our generation and Marion Cotillard is one of the greatest of our generation. I think that’s once of the greatest things about Chris is that the greatest - whether that’s cast or crew - want to work with him. I’m honoured to count myself as part of that. MM: Inception has had this kind of incredible response where it hasn’t even been out for a year yet and it’s already considered a modern classic. How does it feel to be a part of that? DR: It’s a tremendously amazing thing; I can’t take that lightly. I wouldn’t put it up against anything. I think its one of the coolest films ever. When we watched some for the cuts before it came I was like `I’m in it’ and I felt naked. It still blew my mind even then. I’m just so proud to be in it, its only been out 7 - 8 months now and people already consider it kind of one of the greatest films of the last decade, which is the same sort of things they were saying about Avatar.

MM: Now, I have to ask; what’s you opinion of the ending? I’m frankly against the whole “it’s a dream theory” but what’s your take?

DR: Well, I don’t think it helps to give an opinion about it because it ruins the wildly imaginative possibilities. But at the end in that lingering shot you hear the top start to wobble, which I think gives it away.

MM: Yes! Exactly!

DR: (Laughs).

MM: I swear this my last Inception question, but it’s been reported online in the past few days that Warner Bros are looking at Inception sequels, can you tell me anything about that?

DR: Can’t say anything on that. MM: Fair enough. I read that you were originally training to be a doctor before you started pursing acting and theatre. That must have been a huge life decision for you?

DR: It was. I wanted to be a doctor and I was studying to be one, but I changed my mind before it became too much of a reality. It was a hard decision and one that had to be made because I knew there was some part of me that would never be expressed in that profession.

MM: It’s turned out a pretty bloody good decision for you. I mean, out of the three feature films you’ve done it’s been Sam Raimi, James Cameron and Christopher Nolan. People spend their whole lives trying to work with directors and you’ve smashed them all back to back.

DR: I’m really lucky, you know? I think that when those things happen you’re pinching yourself all the time, but at the same time you have a job to do. You don’t have a lot of time to be standing around in awe. But they (the directors) all bring out the best in you. I’m very interested in them as artists, not just as a fan. I love all their movies, but I also understood you’re in a very important process with someone who needs to get done what they need to get done. These are only the first three films that I’ve made and it’s a crazy thing to realise who I’ve worked with. I was a stage actor for most of my life and maybe that’s why all of this came later.

MM: Do you understand how amazing that sounds? No wonder geeks worship you!

DR: Geeks are some of the best people around and those are my people, you know? I don’t look like this all the time; I’m a raging dork. I play board games and I love all that stuff too. I think part of that worship too is to do with James, Sam and Chris. They’re the kind of people who embrace their audience and their audience embraces them back. These particular films embrace the intellect and heart both. Raimi built films from hand, Cameron worked for Roger Corman and Chris, well, he makes them with such love. MM: Right. Well, I was doing some reading on you before this interview and read New York magazine called you the “Indian Will Smith”. How do you respond to something like that?

DR: That is absurd. It’s just not true. It’s flattering that anyone can put me in the same breath as Will Smith who has such an amazing career and has made so many movies. But I think I’m just me – I’m not anyone anyone. No one should be identified by their ethnicity, I’m proud to be Indian, but it’s like calling Tom Hanks the new Jimmy Stewart. Whereas it’s ridiculous to call me the new Will Smith because he’s been in so many movies and gigantic films. He’s one of THE only genuine movie stars in the world where he can open a movie everywhere and people will see it. I’m not that person.

MM: Now Chris Nolan has a tendency to work with actors again, please tell me he’s found a role for you in The Dark Knight Rises?

DR: I don’t know about that, but you never know what’s going to happen. I’ll leave that Chris, Chris knows best.

MM: So there won’t be any Indian chemists or psychics? Damn.

DR: (Laughs) Maybe, maybe not.

MM: Well, thanks so much for chatting with me. It’s been a real pleasure. And you know, I hope you enjoy Australia when you come here.

DR: Thanks a lot. Bye.

For dets on Supernova and to buy tickets to see Rao, click here.