The 2010 movie that made Dev Patel feel “so diluted and worthless”
In 2007, Dev Patel emerged on British TV screens as Anwar in Skins, a well-meaning loser, to put it bluntly, who was often getting himself into trouble.
He became a fan favourite, and like many of his co-stars, such as Nicholas Hoult and Daniel Kaluuya, Patel walked away from those 18 episodes as a famous face, soon landing a leading role in Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire. The movie shot Patel to international acclaim, winning eight Academy Awards, including ‘Best Picture’.
Patel might not have been nominated for an acting award from the Oscars, but he could hardly complain, considering that this was his film debut. He didn’t need to worry, though – for 2016’s Lion, he earned a ‘Best Supporting Actor’ nomination, taking him one step closer to becoming a proper Hollywood star.
But is that even what Patel wants? He has since appeared in films that predominantly sway on the indie or British side, and he has hardly dipped his toes into the world of Hollywood blockbusters at all. That’s because when he did try his hand at one, he really didn’t like it.
In 2010, following the success of Slumdog Millionaire, Patel scored a role in The Last Airbender, directed by M Night Shyamalan – he played 16-year-old Prince Zuko, but unfortunately for the actor, the experience was nothing short of difficult, and while the movie was made on a budget of $150million and grossed an impressive $319.7m, it just wasn’t fulfilling.
Talking to Empire, he explained, “Working on something that big and trying to get heard as an actor is tricky. You feel so diluted and worthless.” It’s no surprise, then, that he has stayed away from such sizable productions ever since. “I would happily shape my career doing great low-budget indies like that. I`m not that hero-type dude, so I`m never going to be playing the handsome lead character,” he added, being a little too hard on himself.
Patel has since reverted to smaller productions, with credits like the indie action thriller Hotel Mumbai, Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield, and David Lowery’s The Green Knight. Clearly, Patel can play the handsome lead character and hero-type, but he prefers to work within the confines of a smaller-scale production, which doesn’t require such a huge distance between the actors and the director.
He even took the leap into directing with 2024’s Monkey Man, an action thriller starring Patel as a man seeking revenge on the people who killed his mother. The movie earned him a Bafta nomination, and it surely won’t be his last effort as a director, judging by the positive reaction he received from it. Perhaps having more control suits Patel best, rather than having to bow down to the demands of a director and a studio which feel far removed from the individual.
So, what’s next for Patel? I guess we can’t expect him to appear in a big Hollywood movie anytime soon, but it looks like it’s only a matter of time before those very people he finds it hard to work with will come knocking, judging by the success of Monkey Man.
