The actor answers your questions on her time as Laa-Laa, playing a British spy, getting a decent curry in LA, and her pole-dancing skills
In your latest film, Mr Malcolm’s List, you are cast with no regard to skin colour or race, as was your Slumdog ex, Dev Patel, in The Personal History of David Copperfield. Colour-blind casting is great, obviously, but why does it seem to have only affected period dramas, or do we not notice it elsewhere? TopTramp
Period dramas are the one area it was completely unheard of. If you look at, say, Star Wars [Rogue One: A Star Wars Story], Riz Ahmed’s character did not have to be painted as south Asian or Muslim. He just existed in that world. I’ve been in big budget movies such as Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Immortals and even that Woody Allen movie [2010’s You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger] where the ethnicity of my skin was not why I was cast. Period movies were the strictest in casting white people and that was the biggest barrier. So, it does seem that period films and dramas, such as Bridgerton, are where these massive breakthroughs are happening. I’m hoping it will translate across the board and we’ll also hear stories from south Asia and other less represented parts of the world.
