# Career, Motivation, and Representation with Dev Patel Auto-transcribed by https://aliceapp.ai on Wednesday, 18 Sep 2024. Synced media and text playback available on this page: https://aliceapp.ai/recordings/pXdyuENfIVlL27xRQz3FUo9g5b1H0C8a * Words : 4,797 * Duration : 00:28:48 * Recorded on : Unknown date * Uploaded on : 2024-09-18 16:30:10 UTC * At : Unknown location * Using : Uploaded to aliceapp.ai ## Speakers: * Speaker A - 23.24% * Speaker B - 76.57% * Speaker C - 0.19% ---------------------------- Speaker A [00:00:04] Please welcome Natalie Scardino and Dev Patel. Wow, Deb, look at this. For a, um, Wednesday morning. Speaker B [00:00:20] I know. Speaker A [00:00:21] Yes. It is amazing. Speaker B [00:00:22] Is everyone caffeinated? I'm nothing. So sorry. There might be a bit of slurring. Speaker A [00:00:29] Oh, all good. We're all one big family here. And it's Deb Patel, everybody. Come on. This is amazing. Thank you for spending some time with us today. Um, we are here during Dreamforce. Speaker B [00:00:45] Here we go. Speaker A [00:00:46] Here we go. Speaker B [00:00:47] I came for einstein, so, uh, I'm taking that home. Speaker A [00:00:49] Uh, I know. I was letting Deb know that all the characters have names. I was very proud to know. This is Cody as well, and Einstein. Um, but we're going to talk today about a few topics that I know many of you are here, um, to learn a little bit more about career motivation, representation, why it matters. But let's go back to the beginning because we have 30 minutes, Dev, and there's a lot to get through. Want to go back to the beginning? Speaker B [00:01:16] Very small career. Speaker A [00:01:18] Exactly. Uh, but really, what some of your first experiences were getting into acting. How did you know that that was the path that you wanted to go down? What were the signs for you? Speaker B [00:01:31] I think it was ADHD, to be honest, is the first thing. I was very hyperactive, um, and I was very lucky to have a mother that just threw me into everything, basically, you know, immigrant mothers, you know, and, uh, uh, that was a way to kind of channel all of that energy. I felt very alive on stage. I did a show of Shakespeare's 12th night. Speaker C [00:01:56] Mhm. Speaker B [00:01:57] I was wearing these football socks and it's like, you know, the white powder makeup and it's like pantomime in school. But it was kind of the first time that I got recognized by the teachers and that kind of interaction with an adult and that really shaped me. Uh, and then my mother saw this. She doesn't, um. This is about a great woman, as you can tell, but she doesn't drive, so she travels to work on the train. And there's a free newspaper called the metro and it's on every seat. And, uh, in the back there's a little, um. There was a newspaper clipping that said, no acting experience necessary. If you're 16 to 18 and you want to be on tv, come to the national youth theatre on this day. So she, um, tore it out. It was like Charlie and the chocolate factory. Uh, um, she said, we're not going to tell your dad. We're going to bunk school. You're going to wear your uniform and we're going to go, uh, uniform. Yeah. And I was this pimply, awkward kid that just didn't want to be out of his comfort zone. I loved performing, but I just thought she'd lost her mind. Uh, and I think of that a lot because she was so close to cracking because I really threw a tantrum. Um, but we went on this train, we queued up outside, I got a number and, uh, uh, yeah, and the rest is history. I did this show called Skins and then the director's daughter. Speaker A [00:03:16] Woo. Speaker B [00:03:17] Thank you. Sorry. Uh, and, um, from that, the director's daughter, Danny, uh, ball's daughter was a big fan of skins and I didn't have an agent at the time, so he was looking for this lead in this movie and she's like, dad, why don't you try that guy? And that's how I got into. Speaker A [00:03:35] Wow. And did you feel, um, you know, when you were going with your mom to the audition, were you thinking to yourself, like, yeah, this is something that I know I want to be doing? Speaker B [00:03:50] Not at that moment, no. Because there was a lot of, like, drama school kids doing vocal warm ups and, like, very accustomed to performing and I was there with my mother, um, you know, so it wasn't the coolest look, but, uh, I think it was like we did two seasons of that show and again, it was this director, Adam Smith, who kind of just, you know, when you're, when an adult really sees you and he cuts through the noise and he speaks to you like an equal. That was Adam. And I remember that day and I, that's the first day I felt like, oh, this is what acting might feel like. Speaker C [00:04:26] Mhm. Speaker B [00:04:26] You know, um, and, you know, it's this great collaboration between all these people, so. Yeah. Speaker A [00:04:32] And that when you went on the set for the first time, how did you kind of get either confidence or courage? Were you just like, okay, I got this. I know what's happening. Obviously, you had great people around you, but how do you own it? Like, when you're not in your comfort zone? Speaker B [00:04:51] Yeah, I was terrible in the show skins. I used to wake up, so if the call time was like 08:00 I would be up at like five in the morning because I was so nervous and I was very bad at reading. So I would basically just wake up and learn the dialogue through and through everyone else's dialogue. So if you watch the first episode, you'll see my mouth kind of mouthing other people's words before and then I'll do my thing. But I was on set and I didn't know any of the words. So, you know, they literally just put us in this set. They'd plucked us from the street, and it was like we had. They're like, rolling, and I'm like, rolling? What do I roll? What do I do? And then they're like, speed. I'm like, this is, uh, you know, there's someone touching your face with makeup, and the only word I'd known from movies was action. And you're like, oh, that's when you do your thing, you know, so I was that fresh during skins. Speaker A [00:05:47] That's amazing. And early on, as you, you start to navigate, you know, your career. Who were some of your inspirations? I mean, presumably your mom that you. Speaker B [00:05:56] Just talked about, Anita Patel. Uh, I went and she also put me into this taekwondo class, Reyna's Lane Taekwondo academy. There's actually a salesforce member, Vijay Soothe. I don't know if he's here, but, um. Oh, there he is. Very dear friend. Speaker A [00:06:09] Oh, wow. Speaker B [00:06:10] And, uh, Vijay trains with us and, uh, his kids, abhij, and, uh, so we reign as Lane Taekwondo Academy. Uh, and that was our instructor, Stuart Anslow. Speaker C [00:06:23] Mhm. Speaker B [00:06:24] He was great at kind of utilizing all of us free range children and giving us a purpose and discipline. But in terms of people I looked up to. With taekwondo comes the love of Bruce Lee, uh, watching enter the dragon past my bedtime and breaking every kitchen cabinet with my rubber nunchucks. And there was that Roger Federer, Ayrton Senna, the race driver, Jim Carrey. Um. Speaker A [00:06:52] Wow. Speaker B [00:06:52] There's a few Rowan Atkinson, if. Mister Bean. Speaker A [00:06:55] Oh, yeah, Mister Bean. Speaker B [00:06:56] Yeah. It was the kind of comedy that I kind of latched into first, you know. Cause I was quite the class clown. So it was the comedians, the Rowan Atkinson's, the Jim Carreys, those kind of guys. Speaker A [00:07:07] Amazing. And can you tell us a little bit, a lot of your work, and obviously monkey man, which I'm sure a lot of people have. Speaker B [00:07:17] Seen, but a. Speaker A [00:07:19] Lot of your work also advocates for underrepresented voices, voices that often go unheard, whether it's in the boardroom or on the big screen. When did that become really important to you? Speaker B [00:07:33] I think it was like, I was like, you know what? I don't want a seat at the table. Speaker C [00:07:37] Mhm. Speaker B [00:07:38] I want to make the table. That was the idea behind it. And I was like, you know, I felt, you know, there was like this little crack in the door, which we could come in and be like the, you know, the. I was gonna say the tech sidekick, but this is a crowd where I shouldn't be knocking tech. Speaker A [00:07:53] So it's all right. Speaker B [00:07:55] Um, but no, it was very, like, there was very limited opportunity in what we could be. And the idea of, you know, I did this film lion, and that was the first time that I got to be, oh, thank you, thank you. And I got to be soulful on camera and deep, you know, and it was like this multi layered look at, uh, you know, immigrants and then this kid that had been adopted from India, and he had this dual perspective, and it was the most kind of reflective of who dev was, even though I wasn't australian or whatever, but, you know, and monkey man was me trying to forge these superhero stories that my grandfather used to tell me in the indian Ramayana. These mythologies that I wish I could share with my friends. And the more I started researching these mythologies, I was like, wow, this has a real social, political context to it. And I can use this like a Trojan horse to feed the John Wick crowd. They're vegetables, you know, like, and in a way, like, you know, I know that sounds weird, but no, you know, cinema is great in that way. You know, you can, once you get people in that dark room and butts are on seats, you know, you know, they want to be inspired. And I think for me, it's like representation is like, you know, familiar feelings in unfamiliar settings, you know, because we're all so universal at the end of the day. So, you know, you take a love story like slumdog, you know, that exists in a slum, and. Thank you, thank you. And it's so universal. Um, doesn't matter if all of us are unknown and the lead actor is a skinny, acne ridden dude and everyone's half of it's in a foreign language. That movie really sent a message to the industry. Speaker C [00:09:43] Mhm. Speaker B [00:09:43] Of, you know, these. These movies can make numbers and there is an appetite and the audience is smart, so, yeah, yeah, treat them with respect, really? Speaker A [00:09:53] Yeah. And even in monkey man. And, you know, I was reading, researching, um, about the character, uh, and the loss of identity and the courage that it takes to come back and figure out, like, who you've always been. You know, sometimes I think all of us experience just the day to day life that we have around us. The complexities of our lives and how easy it is. Or quick. You can feel diminished or lose track, lose sight of who you are. Why was that important in this movie as well? Speaker B [00:10:30] It's weird because it's like, you know, in creating, um, an action movie, normally your type of action hero is the. Is the Schwarzenegger, uh, Keanu reeves. These guys are badass, and, you know, they're gonna win from minute one that you introduce them into the screen. And once Dev Patel walks in, he's more of an underdog, you know? And so I know that people don't look at me as a guy that's gonna win. And I was like, well, why run away from that? You know? I think everyone in this room, however successful you are, whether you sit in the big glass office or outside of it, you know, I think we all feel like the underdogs have our own story, right? Um, and we've all had to jump through hurdles and face failure. And so for me, I think that's the central theme of, like, what I look for with my team. Speaker C [00:11:19] Mhm. Speaker B [00:11:20] My manager, Stephanie, who's sitting there, we're always looking at scripts and it's like, what are the roles where someone can show resilience? And for me, the concept of taking this mythology and starting with a man in a rubber gorilla mask, literally, a performing monkey getting beaten up for money, um, by the more popular opponents, was the beginning of this story of, like, this man turning into the unlikely hero for the other underdogs in society. Uh, did that make sense? Speaker A [00:11:52] Yeah. And challenging the status quo, which, again, we talk a lot about, like, what motivates us. And you have a room here of people that are in all different aspects of life and their careers and, you know, trying to figure out as well the importance of community. I know that is very important to you. Why is community so important? Speaker B [00:12:15] I feel like it's inherent in what I do. You know, everyone thinks, uh, actors, but filmmaking is like the most collaborative art form there is. It's, you know, it's very rarely a, ah, you know, you know, I guess it's, um, it's an orchestra, you know, and it's like, you know, everything from the guys that light the set to the cinematographer, the synergy with the director, uh, the other actors, to catering, you know, a film crew. You know, when I shot monkey man in the middle of a pandemic, you know, in Indonesia, we couldn't shoot in India. We had 500 people locked in this one hotel for nine months, and no one could leave. And food becomes the most primal, important thing, you know, if you don't get the catering to the crew on time. Oh, yeah, it's gonna be monkey man offset, too. Like, you know, so, like, all of that, you know, is about being collaborative, you know, and, uh, yeah, and bringing. Speaker A [00:13:14] Others along as well. Yeah, it is. I mean, that will do it. Speaker B [00:13:18] That will test you in terms of bringing others along. That was like a career highlight for me with monkey man was, you know, we. This film got picked up by Universal and then Jordan Peele came on and gave it this huge push, which was amazing. And, you know, we opened in the chinese theater in Los Angeles. This is like the most iconic mecca for film. And I was there with all of my actors that don't even get a good shot in India. These guys are considered too dark skinned to be the leading ladies or the, you know, or whatever. And they. The incredible thespians that, uh, kind of revolve in big parts in movies and theater. Speaker C [00:13:58] Mhm. Speaker B [00:13:58] And these guys were there, the toast of the town, all of us on stage. And so for me, that was really an amazing moment. Speaker A [00:14:05] That's huge. You were recently named one of Time's 100 most influential people. And in an interview you said that that felt strange. Um, can you tell us more about that feeling and what it meant to be named on that list? Speaker B [00:14:27] Yeah, pretty surreal, you know, because, um, I'm sure you all feel this. Sometimes you make these decisions and it's like high stakes poker. And with acting, there's an emphasis on being relevant and being present. Uh, which when you go off and decide to turn every movie down and spend like years and years hiding in a dark edit room or an, you know, island in Indonesia making this movie, you know, it goes against that. But, uh, you know, it's one carefully planned good chess move is what I realized. And I just committed to it. Speaker C [00:15:06] Mhm. Speaker B [00:15:07] And I just, like an insane person just committed to that one move. And it got me in a room with other people that, you know, what I realized when I was in there, apart from the awkward anxiety of being around incredible people and not feeling worthy, which is a default setting of dev, but is all of these people in this room were myopically focused. Like they had a single obsession, you know, and, uh, whether it was the woman who created a zempic or Kennedy Odede, the man who is shaping Kenya, you know, and, you know, the children in the slums, and this great man who I was connected with, and everyone has one crazy single focus. And I think, you know, if you can, if you can try and not have a lot of these kind of shallow interests, but just one interest that runs very deep that I think can get you far. Speaker A [00:16:02] Yeah. Uh, uh, sometimes we talk about, you know, an indefinitely in tech like imposter syndrome or feeling, you know, your name times 100 or whatever accolade that it might be. How do you grapple with that? Or do you grapple with all the time? Speaker B [00:16:21] Yeah, yeah. I just don't leave my house is the way to grapple with it. Um, no, yeah, it comes in waves because you're always meeting such incredible individuals, like, in the field that I'm in, you know, and, you know, you meet these glorious creatures where they're other actors or supermodels or, you know, times 100. But, um, I think, uh, in a way, I've got a nice support system around me, and, uh, yeah, I think. Speaker A [00:16:51] That'S mainly it, which is another big thing about the support system around you. And how do you. So you mentioned your mom. I think my mom is the biggest support system. If there's a day where things are off for Natalie, she's like, oh, no, you go back in there. Speaker B [00:17:08] Exactly. Speaker A [00:17:09] I'm like, well, I might tame it down a bit, mum, but she doesn't. Speaker B [00:17:11] Need to know the details, my mom. But it's like, you get what I mean? Cause my business is so weird. Uh, it's so foreign, but it's the simplicity that can cut through the fat sometimes. Um, and it's okay to be scared, I think. I function at 99% fear and 1% execution, you know, so it's okay. I think there's a quote. I'm writing a new film right now, and, uh, I want to give you a cope. I was going to say, don't tell anyone, but one of the lines that my character says is in regards to fear, he goes, courage can't exist without fear. And it's very, there is no courage. You have to overcome the fear. So, yeah, there's a quote. Don't put it in your own scripts. Okay. Speaker A [00:17:59] Yeah, you heard it. Speaker B [00:18:01] Um, copyright. Speaker A [00:18:03] And where do you get your inspiration from? Um, in general, whether it is through different people, different experiences, travel, reading. Where does Dev get his inspiration? Speaker B [00:18:17] YouTube. Uh, seriously? Um, I love that. Uh, and traveling is amazing. Um, I like a lot of photography books as well because I realize with monkey, you can see it. My brain works very well visually, so I respond to pictures. They really, um, sit deep in my head and I want to try and capture the feeling of that picture. Um, so my house is just full of coffee table books everywhere. Um, traveling is the best thing when you can collide and put yourself out of your comfort zone with new cultures. You know, I've been to Kazakhstan to all over the place. And, you know, as a kid that dropped out of school too young, that has been the most nourishing thing, you know? And you get to disengage from Dev Rainer's lane. Dev that everyone knows. Oh, you're like that. You can't do that. Blah, blah. Why are you eating that? When you travel, you actually disengage from, you know, you untether yourself from the shackles of what people you know, know you for. And you get to be just a molecule lost in a bigger molecule of people, you know? Speaker A [00:19:34] Yeah. So, ah, a lot of people here, different, uh, stages of career, um, looking for words of wisdom and career advice. What is some of the best advice and the not so best advice you may have been given? Speaker B [00:19:51] Best advice is not to give any advice. Speaker A [00:19:55] I like that. Speaker B [00:19:57] Look, I have a little company when developing films, and I guess I don't know if it's advice, but our process is one of going into what I was saying earlier, it's like I tell them, we're not net fishermen. We don't want to throw a big net out and try and catch too many things and ruin this ecosystem and overburden ourselves. So we're spear fishermen. We go down and we find the one thing, we catch that one thing, and we focus on that one thing. And I think that's like, that's what's working for my little, you know, development. My film development company is like, we're spear fishermen. We're not netfishermen. So I don't know if that's advice, but that's the process that we're walking with. Right. Speaker A [00:20:45] So to focus on that one thing, my seven year old told me yesterday, I'm upset, obsessed with Lego. I was like, oh, I kind of love that. Because he's not latching onto, um, anything else. I'm like, I'll go with the. If you are really focused on that one thing, go really deep into it. And now our front room is a lego store, so there is that part. Speaker B [00:21:06] Yeah, I think Annette Bening said something like that about obsession, and she's like, you know, everyone, you know, she's a phenomenal actress, and she's like, you know, everyone's trying to find this balance in their lives. But, like, to succeed, you need an imbalance. It is an obsession. It is to fall into something, um. Speaker A [00:21:24] That you're passionate about. So we're here at the biggest tech conference on the planet. Woo. Um. Yes. Give it up, everyone. Being here for Dreamforce, what are some lessons, um, that tech companies, we're in the spirit of innovation. What are some lessons that tech companies could take away from, uh, actors and creatives as it relates to innovation. Speaker B [00:21:51] Do you think I'm out of lyrics, guys? I think, um, so I would say definitely for me, it's that singular approach. But in terms of monkey man, for me, I don't know how it translates to tech, but we have a, uh, saying, you know, in India called jugad, which is like a sort of any mean, necessary type of way. And, like, let's just say when you're on an island in Indonesia and, like, the cameras keep breaking and whatever, we had to adapt constantly. And it's like, the best thing I can say is have an amazing plan and be ready to throw that plan out and be agile in your thought process. And for me, every day, like, I'd spend months prepping, we can do this action scene, and I'm going to come down here and look cool and then do that and that, and then you turn up and it's a red zone. Uh, Covid, you can't do it. No one's there. And, you know, the actor can't fly in because there. So now I'm dragging one of the makeup artists out to be, you know, the person in front of camera. And we're using my phone, literally. There's shots from my iPhone in monkey mandae in this Hollywood motion picture. There's a lot of shots from my iPhone. Um, and I can show you some if you want. But, yes, there's one where I'm in this rickshaw and we get t boned by a police jeep, and the sunlight's coming up. The crew's about to walk off. And we didn't have this cool angle that I needed, uh, like a collision, impact. So I was like, just stick my phone in there. So he taped my phone into the cardinal, and it ended up in the movie. We couldn't afford a big water tank when my character gets shot and falls in the water. So I shot in this bathtub in a, uh, like, it's just weird to do on salesforce. I know. Time's ticking. Uh uh. I want to show you guys in my shorts in my bathtub. This is now you can tell I'm just off the cuff here. This is. Don't bring 30 year olds to these things because, you know they're gonna pull their. I wonder if you. Is there a way to zoom in on stuff? Speaker A [00:24:02] There's got. I mean, come on, we're at a tech conference. Speaker B [00:24:05] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Speaker A [00:24:06] We can zoom in shortly. Speaker B [00:24:08] I don't know if you guys, uh, can you look this is the edit room. Can you see it? Look, there's me in my shorts. I'm gonna try and hold it still. Should I put it here? So the focus. Oh, is it? Oh, lucky. Can you see me here? Look, I'm getting in this bathtub, which I went to Home Depot and filled what I filled with, like, moss, and I bought this blood in Soho. There's a lot of weird costume shops in Soho. Huh. Uh, and there you go. That is me. Look in my shorts, getting a shot for monkey man. Speaker A [00:24:46] Hey. Speaker B [00:24:52] That'S in the movie, by the way. Speaker A [00:24:54] That's in the movie. Speaker B [00:24:55] That's the shot that we get eventually. Not me readying myself in the thing, but, yeah, I had a nose infection because all the moss kept going up my nose and it was terrible. Um, wow. Speaker A [00:25:07] But everybody was on that level that they were like, okay, you know what? We are doing this because this is the one thing that needs to happen today. And we're gonna get the bath from the Home Depot. We're gonna get the masks. Speaker B [00:25:17] We're gonna get the masks, we're gonna put the blood on my iPhone. Dunk in there. Speaker A [00:25:22] Wow. Speaker B [00:25:22] Uh, yeah, get the shot, get the shot. Speaker A [00:25:26] Agility. Speaker B [00:25:27] Yeah. Speaker A [00:25:27] Adaptability. Speaker B [00:25:28] Being able to pivot, basically, you know. Speaker A [00:25:31] This was good, but we are changing. And you know what? It probably came out better. Speaker B [00:25:36] Yeah, I think so. I got a good story out of it, that's for sure. Speaker A [00:25:39] You got a great story out of it. And I know that we are on the ticker. Um, and time here is, has just gone with the shots. Um, but we're talking here about career motivation, inspiring people. When you think about personal growth, I mean, you just gave an amazing demonstration of growth. But what words of encouragement, wisdom can you share upon us around personal growth? How does one keep growing, pushing the boundaries, the status quo? Like, what kind of things do you think about there? Speaker B [00:26:18] Yeah, I mean, I try not, um. Like, I try not to concern myself too much with, um, it's hard. And this is something I grapple with, actually. What others are doing and what's in the zeitgeist right now, because the zeitgeist keeps changing. Chase, what's current you're going to be behind anyway. So more than anything, I, ah, sit with myself and I'm like, what am I going to be stupidly passionate about? And what's going to mean a lot to me. In therapy, they say, talk to your inner child, so you're talking to your young self. But it's like, monkey man is like that, kidde, you know that love Bruce Lee kicking all the kitchen cabinets in the house. What does that guy want to see? How would he like to be expressed in his work? And that's where monkey man was born. I was like, I'm going to talk about this transgender community in India. I'm going to talk about this mythology. I'm going to make it cool, and I'm going to be drenched in blood at times. And also I'm going to lose and all of these things. So for me, it's like really trying not to. Another thing from therapy is, who are you doing it for? And, uh, as a kid who's got immigrant parents, you try constantly to try and impress them, whatever. But actually the better results come from when you do it for yourself, you know? And I think that's really important. I think, you know, for me, I was like, if this movie's gonna be terrible, there's gonna be one audience member that's gonna like it, and that's Dev Patel. And yes, and that's, you know, like I said, all emotions, love, anger, you know, rage, empathy, mercy, whatever. These are universal feelings. Speaker C [00:28:22] Mhm. Speaker A [00:28:22] So, yeah, amazing. Do it, uh, do it your way. And on that note, Dev, it has been a pleasure. And, uh, you know, it's gone so, so fast. But we appreciate you being here with us, um, today. Thank you so much, Deb. Speaker B [00:28:39] Thanks for having me, guys. Speaker A [00:28:43] Amazing. Thank you, everybody.