I’d love to have a superpower: Freida Pinto

Actor Frieda Pinto’s last release got her acclaim for her performance as the Greek priestess, Phaedra, though the film did not manage to sustain at the box-office. While playing the Oracle priestess, she says that she did experience a strange sense of spiritual connect with the character. Talking about it she says, “The film is the director’s take on the already been there, done that, Greek epic, but what is unique about this film was that it is completely his take. It’s about a young boy named Theseus and I play Phaedra, a very important character in Theseus’ life, who is a soothsayer, the Oracle priestess, who has these visions and she can see the future and that helps Theseus along his journey.

When I thought of Phaedra, I just thought of the word ‘Zen’, because throughout this film she has been protected and kept away from everyday world. Words like aggression are not part of her dictionary. She is very internalised and calm as compared to everyone else. My preparation was quite simple and I just meditated and tried to be as calm and composed as possible throughout.”

Though she does agree that she did feel spiritually connected to the role, she says the similarities end there. “I really don’t share any character traits with Phaedra because we are in completely different time zones all together. But I’d love to have her superpower, that she can see the future, she can predict what the future holds which is great, but at the same time it can be so much of a torment, every time knowing what you can possibly see in the future. As Freida, since I don’t have such power I will never know what the future holds but can just hope that it’s all the best. So really we do not have anything in common,” adds Freida.
The actor also recounts a couple of experiences while shooting for the film with actor Mickey Rourke and Henry Cavil. While filming, they even celebrated Henry’s birthday on set which was orchestrated by Tarsem Singh (director). Talking about one particular incident, she says, “A lot of things happened, which at the moment weren’t as funny because they seemed more torturous, for example the very beautiful costume that I wear had a very tight corset which didn’t let me breath for a very long time. There was this one particular scene where I get this vision and it’s physically painful for Phaedra to have these visions and I closed my eyes for I was to have this vision, but I also opened my mouth because I was gasping for air. So Tarsem was screaming on the mike saying ‘shut your mouth’ and I replied ‘I’m just trying to breathe’. As beautiful as the costume was it was definitely a challenge to learn to deal with it.”