DEV PATEL IS PRINCE ZUKO IN THE LAST AIRBENDER
He delighted audiences as the underdog leading man, Jamal, in the runaway hit "Slumdog Millionaire," which won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. "Slumdog Millionaire" was only Patel's second acting role-- British audiences know him from the Channel 4 cult series "Skins," where he was selected from an open casting call of hundreds to play the role of Anwar.
In addition to his acting talents, Dev is a Black Belt in Taekwondo, and was bronze medalist in the 2004 World Championships. Dev makes his home in London, England.

Q: So how was making The Last Airbender?
A: It was just so much fun shooting a film like that, just letting your hair down a bit and going on to a massive set and learning some great martial arts moves. The cast was really young and it was all new for me - it was my first film in America. And it was really interesting for me to go from something like Slumdog Millionaire to something like Airbender, where it's like a $15 million to a $150 million with CGI. We did two weeks of the film in Greenland which was spectacular and that was an incredible place to see.

Q: Where did you film the bulk of the movie?
A: Philadelphia, which is where Night (Shyamalan) is based. We had aircraft hangars, which they had turned into stages and we did massive set pieces and it was amazing what they created. There's a tribe in the film called the Northern Water Tribe and they created this stunning kingdom, like an Ice Kingdom and it was beautiful to see.

Q: Tell us about your character..
A: I play Prince Zuko and he's a young prince of the Fire Nation. And to tell you about him I need to tell you a bit about the story. It's a story set in a fantasy world and it's split into four nations so there's the Air Nation, The Fire Nation, The Water Nation and the Earth Kingdom and they have their different members and they have certain people in each nation who can harness their element and use it in combat. So let's say if you are part of the Earth Nation, you can move earth, grab boulders and things like that, and if you are from the Fire Nation you are a fire-bender, which means you can bend fire and harness it, which is pretty amazing. My character is a Prince of the Fire Nation and he is struggling because he is trying to find this character called Aang who is the Avatar, this person who everyone thought was a myth. Aang has the power to harness all four elements and he's the potential saviour of the world. My Nation is basically the evil nation trying to take over the world.

Q: So are you a bad guy?
A: In essence. My father sent me on this impossible mission to find this boy, this myth, the Avatar and in a way my character is similar to the one I played in Slumdog, because they are both very single minded in gaining something. In Slumdog he wanted to find the love of his life and he would do anything, almost kill himself, to find her - get tortured by the police, go on to a game show in front of millions of people, anything. And in Airbender he is going to kill himself trying to find this boy that everyone believes doesn't exist and has vanished off the face of the earth. He's quite confused - he's a young prince and he's trying to take on the role of someone very regal and powerful but inside he's just a confused boy. So it was very interesting for me to play.

Q: Does he have powers too?
A: He does. He's part of the Fire Nations so he is a fire-bender and can bend fire. So if there was a candle on this table he could whisk it up and throw it across the room (laughs). And the interesting thing about the film actually is that the elements associated with each character are quite similar to the personality of each character. Like Katara (played by Nicola Peltz), a friend that Aang finds along the journey, and she is a water-bender and very peaceful and fluid and you can associate that with water whereas I'm a fire-bender and I'm very aggressive and eruptive and quite un-controllable. And you see that when we fight. It's interesting to do a film like this because we are expressing ourselves physically a lot through fighting and things like that.

Q: Haven't you trained in martial arts since you were quite young?
A: Yes, I've done Tai Kwon Do since I was about 10 years old and that really came in handy. It really helped. I came on last to the film and the others were already in boot camp and had started training and Noah (Ringer, who plays Aang) is fabulous, if you see this kid do martial arts, he's a prodigy, he's bouncing off walls and it just comes to him naturally and he is so expressive in the way he fights. He can really tell a story in that way and that's what Night used to say. And we all sort of looked up to him when it came to the fighting. And although I was a bit late joining the film having that background in Tai Kwon Do really helped me catch up with the rest of the guys.

Q: What disciplines were you using for the film?
A: For the film I was using northern Shao Lin mixed with a few of my own moves that I knew. I got there and the stunt guys just said 'show us what you've got..' and I showed them a few things. And they liked that I was very tall and have very long legs so they wanted me to really show that off. And the Fire National people all had these beautiful samurai-esque costumes, we were all in black, and you could throw an amazing move and it looked very, very cool.

Q: Was it a physically demanding film to make?
A: Yes it was. It was really challenging. For me it was a tricky character to play. He's an antagonist to an extent and he reminds me a lot of Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars and I'm a bit of a Star Wars fan (laughs). He has this constant struggle of choosing the path between good and evil and he doesn't know which way to go and in his mind he wants to capture this boy and grab him. But he has this wonderful relationship with his uncle who tries to teach him about being young and living life to the fullest and enjoying yourself and he tells him that he doesn't need to do this mission to regain his honour; he can just be young and enjoy himself. So there's that constant battle within him.

Q: So what was the biggest challenge?
A: The most challenging thing was working on these big, spectacular sets, sometimes with green screen. Slumdog was fantastic because for most of it we were working on location and you could feel it and see it in front of you. This was a different experience because you really had to use your imagination in certain part - Night would tell me 'OK, you are going to grab fire from there and throw it over to there..' and you really had to conjure it up and believe it to sell it. So that was hard. And we would be doing fight sequences 40 metres apart. You know, normally if you are fighting someone you would expect to have some physical contact but the great thing about this film, which is going to make it really cool for the audience, is that I can grab my element and throw it right across the room to my opponent and he can block it with some air and things like that. It was great fun - it brought the inner child out in me! (laughs).

Q: So what were the sets like?
A: The sets were spectacular. I had my own ship! They build my own ship - how cool is that? There are a few scenes when I'm sparring on the deck of my ship and when you see it you won't believe it, it's so good. I mean, a lot of it was using my imagination but Night was great and he tried to make it as real as possible for us so he made my ship and things like that, so that we had something tangible there to work with. It wasn't all green screen and that's why we flew to Greenland and did some of the scenes there - and I guess he could easily have done it with CGI, using the computer to put in the icebergs but you can't beat going there and seeing the icebergs, seeing the steam come out of our mouths and feeling the wind in our faces. You simply can't replicate that. It certainly helped too, although I'll admit it was freezing (laughs).

Q: What's Night like to work with?
A: He's great and he's fabulous with children. He is like a big kid at heart sometimes and he is so energetic on set and the good thing is that he can poke fun at himself. So when you see him with the little kids like Nicola and Noah he is really down with them, there's no separation and it's like they're talking to one of their best friends. And I think it really helps - he really connects with his cast and he gets great stuff out of all of them.

Q: Did you know the cartoons before you took the part?
A: I'd seen it a few times. I stumbled across it myself. Actually, I saw a few episodes when I was in India filming Slumdog Millionaire. I was flipping through the channels and I came across this really cool cartoon where the kids were doing really cool martial arts moves - and I love martial arts so I decided to watch it. It's a really good cartoon. I remember when I got the role I bought the first season DVD and watched the lot and I can see why it is so successful because it's really funny and there is also a very adult aspect to it where the characters are really conflicted. It's also like a mini science lesson in a way with all the elements - Air, Water, Earth and Fire, involved - it's a really cool cartoon.

Q: There was a little bit of controversy about some of the casting. What's your take on that?
A: Well, for me it's the most diverse cast I've ever worked with actually. I did a TV show called Skins, I did Slumdog and on Airbender I worked with a boy from Texas, a guy from Persia, I'm of Indian descent and it's such a multi cultural cast when you look at it. I certainly didn't have a problem with it at all.

Q: Am I right in thinking that this is your first film since Slumdog?
A: Yes it is. I've been offered quite a few things but I'm trying not to get typecast.

Q: Did you get offered a few things that were kind of similar to Slumdog?
A "This is my first film since I made Slumdog and I was really careful about choosing the right one," he explains. "I tried to prove my chops as much as I could with Slumdog - holding a film and giving what I hope was a performance with depth. Afterwards I was sent a lot of scripts which didn't excite me in the same way and which I felt would not have stretched me as an actor as Slumdog had. I still have so much to learn and I wanted to make sure I made the right decision.
"So I held back and then Airbender came along. I'd seen the cartoon and I'm a huge fan of martial arts and with M. Night Shyamalan directing, Frank Marshall producing and Andrew Lesnie on board as cinematographer I knew that this would be an incredible learning experience and it was also a very different role from the kinds of parts I'd been sent previously."
So I put myself on tape for it as there was a big international casting call and then Night gave me a call one day and I was like 'wow I thought you'd already cast it..' and he said 'when I saw the tapes you really stood out for me but it was only when I watched Slumdog that I realised you were right for the character..' As you can imagine, I was thrilled.

Q: Taking an idea from a cartoon and transferring it into a big film like this is difficult for any filmmaker. How did he manage that?
A: I think he's done it brilliantly. This film is about entertainment and escapism - you want to go there and escape into this fantasy world and you are not looking for performances that are going to move you to tears and change your life forever and things like that but you want to be involved in the story and get caught up in the journey they are on. The way that Night explained it to me was that he was going to bring a real human approach to the characters and give it more depth than perhaps the cartoon has. Because you watch animation and they are big caricatures and they are there to make you laugh but in a film like this it's fascinating what you can do, especially if you have a director like Night, and he made the characters more gritty, more rough around the edges and that's what really enticed me to my character, he is so conflicted. I knew it could be really challenging. His name is Zuko and he's Prince of the Fire Nation and what more different could I get to Slumdog?

Q: What have you been doing since Slumdog?
A: A lot of travelling and some charity work. I went back to India to do some charity work and I stayed there for a couple of months. I went back to Mumbai. I have lots of friends out there from the film and I really fell in love with it when I was making the film and I was determined to go back there again. It felt natural to go back there.

Q: Which charity have you been working with?
A: It's actually weird because M. Night Shyamalan has adopted a child with a charity called Hope International and he brought some of the people from the charity on set one day. They came to set and they were in the lunch queue and we just got talking. I'd been looking to give something back because the Slumdog has done so much for me. You know, I was the only British guy in the cast of Slumdog and I had to do lots to prepare. Danny Boyle took me earlier than everyone else so I could get into character so I went with the location scouts and saw the slums and things and it really touched me. So I wanted to give something back. So the charity is called Hope International and they have a sector called Hope India. Basically for me it was a bit of a fact-finding mission, so I visited schools and talked to the kids and spoke to them about what we can do. I hope my name can help the charity and bring more awareness to it and things like that. And coming from a film like Slumdog that was basically about the slums and the lives of children who live in the slums I think it would be great to go down that route and shed some light on it. I was there for a couple of months and it was great. Apart from that, I was reading scripts.

Q: Were you able to move about in India without being bothered too much or were you recognised everywhere?
A: It was strange because it was much harder than I thought and I kind of assumed it would be OK. Because there they are into their own Bollywood actors and I'm certainly not that so I thought I would go there and have fun. But even getting into a little rickshaw everyone knew me. They all knew me from the film and they would call me 'Hero' and 'millionaire' and in Hindi they would shout 'there's that boy from Slumdog Millionaire..' and so everyone knew by my face although I'm not sure how many knew my name. I was surprised because even the rickshaw drivers, the people working on the stalls in markets, they all knew my face.

Q: Did you have to be careful?
A: You know, everyone was really friendly. That film was like a national anthem for India and everyone really got behind it so the reaction was lovely.

Q: Did you teach in the schools?
A: No that would be hard for me because I don't speak Hindi. I just met lots of people and hopefully helped with some fund raising.

Q: How has Slumdog changed your life?
A: Well, Danny Boyle plays a big part in that because he ignited this passion for acting that I have. Even though I was in Skins, I was straight off the street and I was with a group of young guys and we were just having so much fun on set and it was a really laid back sort of atmosphere. But I had to go up a gear for Danny. And for someone like him to have faith in me, an absolute nobody, really gave me the confidence that I needed. He taught me a lot, he was very patient with me and he gave me that passion for acting.

Q: But how have you stayed grounded?
A: I think it's quite simple, really. Everyone says it's hard to stay grounded but I don't think it is. I don't know how I could change really. Maybe it's because of my family too. Working on a film set for hours and going home to your Mum is always grounding. And I still have the same friends from school and things like that. We were protected during it all.

Q: Do you still live at home?
A: I'm hardly ever there but yes, I do still live at home. My old bedroom is still there and maybe that's a big part of it, I go home and it's just the same as it always was.

Q: Did you allow yourself some luxuries?
A: Yes, I've had some fun! But not really spent money on big luxuries. The only thing I want to do is learn to drive and then I might splash out on a car. But I'm not quite there yet; I'm still at the lessons stage, unfortunately. I've done the theory test but I've had no time. Every time I try and book a test the centre is either booked or I'm flying off somewhere to do something else.

Q: Apart from film, what are your interests?
A: Well, it sounds really cheesy but I love watching movies. And the thing is I'm quite boring that way but I love just spending time with my friends at their house.  I don't know, just general things that kid my age like to do. I like to play Nintendo Wii. You know, what when you play Wii tennis you feel like you are Roger Federer at Wimbledon and it gets really competitive too. But that's really cool. And you know, I'd like it if I could go down to the local bowling alley and have some fun there but now there is a lot more attention on me but in that way I have to be a bit more reclusive and a bit more careful about where I go in public. I can't just hop on the tube anymore.

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