Pinto

The actor and producer spoke to IndieWire about her call to Indian stories and the Bollywood flair in her latest film.

At the same time we are trying to keep the entertainment quotient pretty high, because in order for something to be successful, and in order for something to really hit home, and if it’s a TV series for people to come back for Season 2 or Season 3, it has to have that binge-able quality to it as well. For some reason, some studio in the past thought, “Oh, but why would we tell a story about a black Latin or brown woman, because who’s going to watch it?,” but of course times have changed — we have “ Ms. Marvel” — and we need more producers, more people behind the scenes thinking of how to bring these stories to life. You get one opportunity to make something, you have a lot of money invested into it and you want to do it right. “Mr. Malcolm’s List” is a good balance of it for me. That’s why I bring up the ’90s rom-coms and that’s why I bring up Bollywood as well, because there’s no other film industry that I can think of that has mastered escapism at such a beautiful level and really gives people the value for the money that they spend towards a ticket. We need to escape or else we’re gonna go crazy because there’s a lot of fights that we have to put up right now, and you’re fighting and you’re fighting and you’re fighting. I didn’t think of it as a Bollywood movie, but now that you are saying it, it really does remind me of that — the elevation of emotion as well as color and costume really could point in that direction. And then eventually they come together, and that is a kind of escapism, I feel like right now, in this current present moment, we really need. But then I also knew that in order to get my little itty bitty productions seen, I had to star in them, so that also became a natural trajectory. But we have dance, we have the meeting of the eyes and just before they kiss they get separated — yes, we have it all. I feel it has “Mr. Malcolm’s List” does have the makings of it. “Over the last 15 years I’ve managed to learn a lot of things on the producing side and also have learned what my call towards storytelling is,” Pinto told IndieWire during a recent Zoom interview.

Please Allow Freida Pinto to Reintroduce Herself ... The Mr. Malcolm's List star is hitting her stride as an actress, producer, and mother. ... The first thing ...

At one point, Pinto apologizes for grabbing a bite to eat during our call as Rumi-Ray cooed in the background while she soothingly assured him, “I’m just trying to finish the interview, lovebug.” Impressively, none of this hampers her ability to be a generous interviewee, giving thoughtful answers with considered candor. With the film came a BAFTA nomination and overnight international stardom, but in her roles since then, Pinto has often been relegated to eye candy, something she’s discussed with refreshing honesty. The first thing Freida Pinto does after saying hi to me on the phone is apologize.