"The Guru" Interviews: Heather Graham and Jimi Mistry
By Kit Bowen, Hollywood.com Staff
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Tuesday, January 28, 2003
Can you relate to your characters?
Graham: I think as an actor, anyone can identify with Jimi's character, coming here and trying to make it in show business. And I can identify with my character because she's a person whose afraid she can't be accepted for who she is so she has to make up this whole other personality. I think Marisa's character wants to believe someone else has the answers and not look towards herself and realize she already has all the answers.
How is the whole promotional thing going?
Graham: It's funny, as an actor, you aren't really trained to do interviews. Especially television. [Director] Daisy [von Scherler Mayer] was like, "Just say this." She was coaching me but it's so hard. I told her, you should come out and do this.
Mistry: You're not taught how to do interviews at acting school.
Graham: Or how to tell a funny story on The Tonight Show.
Who is easier, Jay Leno or David Letterman?
Graham: I used to have a huge crush on David Letterman. I thought he was yummy and so funny. But they're both good. As an actor, you want to appear on both shows.
Heather, the porn industry, so to speak, has been good to you. First, Boogie Nights, now The Guru…
Graham: I guess so. It's made me my money. I've achieved some wisdom, I guess. And [in The Guru] I learned how to sing through my genitals. At first, I thought Daisy just meant metaphorically but then she said, "No, I really want you to do it."
Mistry: The porn industry has been good to me as well, but I'll talk to you about that later.
Jimi, how was it working with so many women?
Mistry: It was fantastic. Never done it before.
Graham: He got a lot of attention. A lot of flirtation.
Mistry: There was great understanding, from Daisy in particular. If our relationship hadn't started off so well, I wouldn't have gotten the job. Daisy was also obsessed with the way I looked. The first thing she did was take me to the dentist to make my teeth whiter. I had to have a trainer, had to get a tan. She wanted me to look like the right package. Now, if a bloke was directing this, he wouldn't have cared. And on top of that, I got some great clothes.
Did either of you think your future would involve singing and dancing in a movie?
Graham: I used to dream about it as a kid. I would sit in my parents' living room and play Sound of Music, West Side Story, Camelot, and pretend like I was all the characters. If there was a musical in my school, I would find out about it like a year in advance and rehearse for it. Like every night.
Mistry: I used to dance in front of the mirror with my antiperspirant. I wanted to be Michael Jackson. Now, I want to be like Justin Timberlake.
Was it big fun to do the musical numbers?
Graham: Doing the Indian dance number was so amazing. I mean, I've never done anything like that before. To be a part of this whole other cultural thing, the Bollywood experience, was just so cool.
What is "Bollywood" exactly?
Mistry: It's Hollywood in Bombay, basically--they have a huge film industry there. India makes a hell of a lot of films.
Graham: Not that I'm an authority by any stretch of the imagination, but there's a few different types of Bollywood films that I saw when doing some research. There's the traditional ones, with traditional Indian musical and saris and then there's the Grease kind, where everyone is dressed in '50s clothes--guys in satin shirts and girls in poodle skirts.
Mistry: It's about having a lot of fun, about silliness. Slightly over-the-top. Hopefully, The Guru will transcend it all.
OK, final question. What's the best sexual advice you could give me?
Mistry: The Guru has one piece of advice: Lie back and think of India.
The Guru opens in theaters Jan. 31.