Naveen Andrews Interview, GrindHouse

MoviesOnline sat down with Naveen Andrews to talk with him about his new film, Grindhouse, a double dose from long time collaborators Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino’s Death Proof is a white knuckle ride behind the wheel of a psycho serial killer’s roving, revving, racing death machine. Rodriguez’s Planet Terror is a heart-pounding trip to a town ravaged by a mysterious plague. Inspired by the unique distribution of independent horror classics of the sixties and seventies, these two shockingly bold features are presented together on a drive-in style double bill, replete with fake trailers, missing reels and plenty of exploitative mayhem.

In Planet Terror, married doctors William and Dakota Block (Josh Brolin and Marley Shelton) find their graveyard shift inundated with townspeople ravaged by gangrenous sores and a suspiciously vacant look in their eyes. Among the wounded is Cherry (Rose McGowan), a go-go dancer whose leg was ripped from her body during a roadside attack. Wray (Freddy Rodriguez), her former significant other, is at her side and watching her back. As the invalids quickly become enraged aggressors, Cherry and Wray lead a team of accidental warriors into the night, hurtling towards a destiny that will leave millions infected, countless dead, and a lucky few struggling to find the last safe corner of Planet Terror. Naveen plays Abby, the scientist who tries to find a cure for the zombie infection while attempting to outwit a general (Bruce Willis) determined to control the disease for his own devious purposes.

In the classic tradition of leading men who have emerged from the London drama world, Naveen Andrews is quickly developing into one of today’s most diversely talented actors in both film and television. Starring in the groundbreaking television role of Sayid, a former Iraqi Republican Guard, on the award-winning drama Lost, Naveen has become an audience favorite and garnered widespread critical acclaim for the surprising humanity and humor he brings to the controversial part. He recently received both Emmy and Golden Globe nominations in honor of his work.

Though born and raised in London, and of Indian descent, Naveen say he has found his true home in Hollywood. He began his entertainment career as a teenage musician, guitarist and composer; then, he won entry to the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama during a time that also produced such screen stars as Ewan McGregor and David Thewlis. Naveen first attracted international attention as Kip, Juliette Binoche’s Sikh boyfriend in The English Patient, and also appeared in Mira Nair’s controversial Kama SutrNaveen Andrews: A Tale of Love.

Adding to his growing reputation as an actor of broad range and appeal, Naveen recently took on leading roles in two diverse film projects: portraying a poet caught in a love triangle in Jane Weinstock’s modern romantic comedy Easy and starring as the eminently eligible bachelor Mr. Balraj in Gurinder Chada’s (Bend It Like Beckham) riotously colorful Bollywood version of a classic literary tale, Bride and Prejudice.

In addition to Grindhouse, Naveen has two exciting "big screen” film projects expected in 2007. He stars as Jodie Foster’s fiancée in director Neil Jordan’s The Brave One, an urban suspense thriller about a woman who recovers from a brutal attack and sets out on a dark psychological and physical journey for revenge and justice. He’ll also star opposite Aishwarya Rai in the British film Provoked based on a true story about a woman who was jailed for killing her abusive husband. The film also stars Miranda Richardson and Robbie Coltrane and received accolades at this year’s 2006 Cannes Film Festival.

Naveen is a fabulous guy and we really appreciated his time. Here’s what he had to tell us about his latest role in Grindhouse:

Q: You have an unexpected end, what did you think when you first saw it?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: As long as it was glorious and operatic I don’t care, it’s good. Robert shows you what’s going to happen anyway, with a little model and everything, so you have a fair idea of what he’s going to achieve. You know it’s going to be good.

Q: That was practical effects, K.N.B. Effects did it, right?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: Yes, but Robert has a lot to do with it as well. I remember him showing me the model that he designed for Quentin’s demise. It seemed to be it originates with him, the actual apparatus and then they add their expertise to it.

Q: What appealed to you about this movie?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: You mean, when I took it on? I haven’t seen it yet. I’m going to see it on Monday, but when I got the script, it wasn’t the script it was just the scene. I met Robert in a room in this hotel actually, and it was just the castration scene, and of course it intrigued me. I wanted to know more.

Q: Did they have grindhouses in England?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: No, unfortunately when I was growing up in the 1970s, the nearest thing we had to it would have been the Hammer House of Horror, those really cheap, awful, repressed English -- Peter Cushing killing a giant moth or women with their tits out every now and then to keep it spicy -- that’s all we had. We were deprived.

Q: Were you shooting this while you were shooting Lost?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: No, I was shooting this while I was shooting a film called The Brave One with Jodie Foster in New York, so I was going back and forth between Austin and New York, but it was good.

Q: Was that in your hiatus from Lost?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: Yes.

Q: What’s the fascination of your character with balls?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: I think it stems from a kind of innocence really; it’s like children who collect marbles. (everyone laughs) And they also display them in a glass jar. The adult progression of that is that you actually collect body parts and display them in public in a glass jar and they are like gems, you cherish them. They’re a wonderful thing to be kept.

Q: What were they made out of?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: What were they made out of … well -

Q: They looked like dumplings.

NAVEEN ANDREWS: Dumplings, well I think - well they were shaved. It makes you wonder about the vocation of the owners of these appendages.

Q: How did you come up with the rock star scientist look?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: That’s Robert, and I guess he sees you’ve got kind of longish hair and he sort of thinks, wouldn’t it be great if? And then Quentin puts his ten cents in and sort of like says, because one of the zombie films that we were forced to watch had this big old English actor in it, I think he’d been on the list for James Bond back in the sixties but didn’t get it, and he was obviously drinking his way through the film just to try and get – you felt really sorry for him, and Quentin was like, ‘I want you to make him like that, the voice,’ so both of them actually help out with that.

Q: What was it like going from working with Jodie Foster to these guys?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: Well, what is different is that these two are like outlaws, they’re outside the studio system, there’s not a producer for miles, you can’t see a producer. That’s the first thing an actor notices. Obviously Warner Bros. is very different. It’s a sense of freedom I guess, but that percolates down to the actors. You feel that you can do anything; you can put balls in your mouth if you want, if you really want to, and they might dig it.

Q: Speaking about balls –

NAVEEN ANDREWS: Yes, oh do, more.

Q: On this production, metaphorically, who had the biggest, the men or the women?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: Oh women.

Q: Any particular man or woman who had the toughest job?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: Oh, the toughest job, I can only speak for Planet Terror. I think Freddy, Rose and Marley had a tough time physically with what they had to do, really strenuous physical stuff. I remember seeing Rose with that stump, because that’s all she had at the time, and thinking how is she going to – I think those three had the toughest time of all.

Q: Did you go hang out and eat barbeque together after playing with these balls – did everybody just go eat barbeque at night or something?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: Yes. Yeah, because Robert’s very relaxed, you know he has a guitar strapped to the monitor and he takes it off, and I’m a guitar player too, so we’d be playing and singing. Even though it may look chaotic on the screen, a lot of discipline goes into that, so when you’re not doing it, it’s kind of down a bit.

Q: Are we going to see another Sayid episode this season?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: We might have done it. (Laughs)

Q: How do you feel about the direction the show has taken this year, with the fall-off in ratings and interest?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: Well, I think to myself, I loved the first season, I’m really proud of it and I put it up there with the work I’m most proud of. We’ll always have it, they can’t ever take it away, it will always be there, and I’m not a writer, it’s their choice to do what they want to with that show, and they will.

Q: Your character actually gets to do stuff on the show unlike some of the other characters – do they wish they could go along with you to the others camp?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: It’s an odd situation and it is difficult, especially for the original cast. We just have to be relatively stoic and it’s the nature of what we signed on to do, we are very much pawns in an evil game of chess. (we all laugh) Who are the bishops?

Q: Have you filmed the finale for this year, or are you still filming?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: No. We’re still filming. I’ve got to go back this week.

Q: How many episodes do you still have to film?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: Jesus, it could be another four or five, because they always say like 22 and then at the last minute come in and go, ‘Actually, we want a big finale, 24.’ That’s what’s happened ever f*cking year, so it’s probably going to happen now.

Q: Did they mention to you that it’s going to be a two-parter, or three-parter, or a two-hour movie?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: I don’t think we’ll go quite that far, probably just be like a big finale at the end at the usual time.

Q: Are they going to start it in January next year and run it straight through?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: I believe that’s the plan.

Q: Is that something that you think is a good way to market it?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: I think they should make it like it was before. I liked it when it started a little bit earlier, because a lot of the audience are kids, aren’t they?

Q: Where do you want to see your character go next season?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: Go? It would be nice if he was seen a bit more, that’s a start.

Q: Damon has said he wants a solid end date, so that they can write the show to that point.

NAVEEN ANDREWS: I’m all in favor of that. We can’t go aimlessly blundering along without an ending in sight. If they have something to work towards, then I think the quality of the show will be maintained. This can’t be about making money. If you look at the series from England, it’s one thing I’ve learnt from England, the way the BBC works, or The Office, it’s not about the number of episodes or syndication, it’s about the quality of the material, and hopefully they’ll be able to stick to that.

Q: Do you think it’s a five or six-year arc?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: From what I’ve heard it’s definitely another season, and maybe a shortened fifth, that’s what I heard.

Q: And that’s it?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: Yeah.

Q: Because he talked about doing a feature film at Comicon last year.

NAVEEN ANDREWS: (Laughs) Tell me something I don’t know!

Q: Are you still enjoying it, it sounds as though the enthusiasm has left the cast?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: No, we still like being with each other, and Hawaii’s still a wonderful place to be, but you know the schedules of television are extremely grueling. I don’t want to sound like I’m moaning but one of the great things about film is the beginning, the middle and end, and the f*cking thing stops.

Q: Has the Hawaiian PD been after you?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: I’m in with the Hawaii PD. I’ve been let off I don’t know how many times, I can’t tell you. They have been so generous with me, I’m very grateful.

Q: Do you see yourself doing any work with JJ camp anytime soon, maybe a big Star Trek movie?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: I like where I am at the moment, actually. I like the idea of being able to continue to do more films, and hopefully maybe do a good piece of art every now and then and earn some money for the kids.

Q: Do you have anything lined up for this year’s hiatus?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: This hiatus, yes, there’s a few things, but to be honest with you I haven’t stopped working since the start of Lost and that’s a good thing, but you do have a life and you can’t wear yourself out. I haven’t stopped.

Q: Can you tell us a little about your role in The Brave One? It’s a vengeance flick, right?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: Yes, if anything that’s also another genre film in the sense that it reminded me of the Death Wish cycle of films from the late seventies and the early eighties. But with Neil Jordon directing it, I think it will be a lot eerier and have a kind of emotional resonance that those films maybe didn’t have. But I will say this without giving it away, if the relationship between Jodie and me doesn’t work, then the film won’t work. That relationship has to work for the rest of the film to come off.

Q: Were you a horror fan in the past – any favorites?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: Oh God no, I wish I could say yes but I thought they were rubbish.

Q: You think more highly of Planet Terror?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: No, I think that’s horror too as far as I’m concerned, it’s all the same bloody thing to me, I’m ignorant. Again, coming from England, we’re snobs, we’re snobs about film, we think that art and cinema should be Pasolini or something, with an ‘i’ on the end. Does Scorsese got an ‘i’, no it’s a ‘e’.

Q: Does Lost limit the kind of roles you can do, because you can’t do too much with your look?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: Oh no, on the contrary - I have to say this, I wouldn’t have got this film without Lost, I wouldn’t have to got the Jodie film without Lost. It’s been very good in that sense.

Q: Do you think they should be rescued in the end?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: No, kill the f*ckers!

Q: Do you actually know what the end is?

NAVEEN ANDREWS: No.

"Grindhouse” opens in theaters on April 6^th. I invite you to read my interviews with the film’s directors, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, and the rest of the cast.