Poorna Jagannathan who played the role of Menaka in the 2011 comedy film Delhi Belly will now be seen in the second season of HBO’s Big Little Lies. We caught up with her and asked her a few questions.
Tell us what was it like on the sets with Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep! What was it all like?
Everyone kept asking me, was it so much fun? Apparently, there’s so much laughing on set. I come in to the story when shit just hits the fan. It was a really, really tense set.
I read somewhere that they were actually looking for a white actor?
Hmm. I don’t know if they were looking for a white... I think their casting net was pretty open with this. When I went into the audition, there were two other Caucasian actresses in the room. But I think they were pretty open you know, because actors kind of have been set. There are very few new characters coming in. I know they were really fighting hard to get more diversity on the show.
Any stories related to Meryl Streep? Did she like try to ease you up in any way?
You know, I was just so... So, we were sitting next to each other for most of my shoot and we chat and at some point I asked her like how do actors deal with... Like do they just go crazy with you or people... do they go nuts?
And then I said, have you ever been nervous?
And then she told me about the time that, years ago when Al Pacino just became Al Pacino. Meryl Streep’s husband was like, ‘Oh I just invited Al over to lunch and you know, she just had a heart attack and she was like shaking while cooking and just like Oh My God!’
And you’ll also be seen in Mindy Kaling Netflix Original. Tell us what was that like?
Look, I’ll tell you the premise of the show. It revolves around my daughter, name is Devi. Devi is 15, in high school and she is an Indian girl and just trying to get laid. You know what I mean? Which all of us can relate to. And just trying to be popular and she’s super smart. And just trying to really fit in, you know. And I play her very, very, very funny and unaccommodating mom. And I really relate to the character, it’s definitely how I parent my 13-year-old. So, there was a lot in common.
Big Little Lies 2 airs on Star World in September.
Camera: Sanjoy Deb
Camera Assistant: Gautam Sharma
Edit: Veeru Krishna Mohan
Reporter: Deeksha Sharma
Producer: Vishnu Venugopalan
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