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I have to ask, the movie industry is a very unforgiving industry, did your father try to steer you away from it or was he delighted you were following in his footsteps? [laughing] No, not at all, because my dada’s a part of it, he was like, “Of course this is what you’re going to do”. When you’re at college you have so many…not insecurities, but more questions. You know, “ Am I really going to make it in this? What’s going to happen?” And all your fellow peers in college are doing internships with massive studios on the production side and those jobs are more guaranteed 9-5 type jobs on the production side. I thought to myself, you know acting is the only profession where your job is in someone else’s hands! You can work your butt off for hours on a scene and go into an audition and absolutely kill it and you don’t have the correct hair colour or the right look that they’re going for – there are so many things that go into making a decision as to who gets a role and I think because of that it’s really hard to have control over your career. When you’re a producer you have a little more leverage. I learned that from my dad and I had those doubts when I was in college, Dad really helped me focus and he said, “Hey kid, you grew up in this, we’re going to do this together as a family”. So instead of warning me or being cautious about it, he was the one who really motivated me and told me not to worry. Even today I can still stress about things and say, “How are we going to get this done?” and he’ll say, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way”. If it wasn’t for him, I don’t know I’d be doing this, you know, wearing the hat of a producer and an actor!
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Your name has been attached to a film with Andy Armstrong starting to film later this year; are you able to share any news with us? No, the only thing I can share is that it’s based on a true story. I don’t know if these true stories are following me around, [laughing] but I love them, I feel like I can give justice to a story that maybe hasn’t been heard or got enough light and I can bring that to an audience in a more entertaining manner, rather than just watching the news. I’m super excited about that project, it’s very, very different from Jungle Cry – the tone of the film, the message of the film, the entire look of the film is completely the opposite of Jungle Cry and so I’m incredibly excited about it! And, obviously Andy Armstrong is hugely respected in the industry, as is his brother Vic Armstrong, so yes I’m hugely excited by it!
I don’t know how you do it, but despite the demands of acting and producing, you find time for charity work; do you find that helps balance the world in which you live? Yes, I think so. My charity work in the last year has been about Jungle Cry and helping these boys. The boys who work in our film aren’t actors, they are actual rugby players who come from these villages and the jungle and most of them are orphans or have just one parent or are struggling in their community, so our work has been to try to help them get on in life, whether that be receiving a college education or bettering their life in India or navigating their career. Some of them are actual rugby coaches in India now! They’re doing quite well and I think when you give back in that sense to do things for others without it being recognised in one sense, not photographed etc., so to do it for the reason of wanting to help others, it definitely gives you that nice balance and it gives you more than any glamorous
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movie industry can teach you of course, or any industry for that matter. It’s a different tone; you’re trying to help people for the goodness of humanity.
Will the film still be released in April or has this awful business of Covid-19 pushed things back a little? I know Bond has moved back. We could do with entertainment in times like this! I know, I know right! Right now, it’s still scheduled for April 17th but every day we’re waking up to very devasting news and so I’m crossing my fingers. There may be a change of plan with what’s going on in the world.
CE L EBRIT Y INTERVI EW EMI LY SHAH
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