Quotes from Sarita Choudhury

I think I have a certain awkwardness, and I don't know how that works on screen.

I go about doing my work passionately.

There is this film called 'La Femme Nikita.' I want to play something like that. This woman with a gun in her hand but with tears in her eyes. I would love to play that kind of vulnerability on screen.

The first time I put on the hijab, it felt weird, like I was wearing a scuba-diving suit kind of thing.

I wanted to move between film and theater - I never felt like I fit into TV. And I'm very anti-TV, like, 'I'm never going to do TV,' but also, TV didn't want me either, so it was kind of perfect. And then, of course, cable happened, and suddenly it was like, 'Oh, I could do that kind of stuff.'

Some people are very ambitious and plan their whole careers, but I am not that kind of a person.

After a two-year stint at Cheek by Jowl theatre company in London, I put all my energies into breaking into New York's theatre scene. It took me eight years to build enough to play lead roles.

I am interested in independent cinema and theatre, and they don't make news.

In America, they often don't know where I am from. The important point is the audience should not be able see through it. It should be so natural that your close friends may even think that you are not a great actor.

I can speak Hindi, but I can't sustain it over a whole movie.

It was strange wearing the scarf and the hijab until I got used to it.

I've always wanted to do an Indian film, but I didn't want to come to India and pretend that I could play an average Bombay girl.

When you have a good director, it's just wonderful.

I know I create major reactions in people.

Unless you enjoy life passionately, you cannot be a good artiste. Practise what you like, be it sports or dancing.

People are always asking me if the industry is changing, and my answer is always that it is changing only as much as we are. Many South Asian actors complain about being pigeonholed into playing terrorists and cab drivers, but it's time that we stop talking about it. The industry will always say 'No' till we have enough to convince them.

If you ever watch me at theatre rehearsals, you will know what a bad actress I am. I am bad... bad... bad... and then, by opening night, it all just falls into place.

I live in New York. I go to dance class; I do theatre. When things are sent to me, if I like them, I push to do them. And I would absolutely love to do anything that's part of my dad's homeland.

To do a movie with someone like Tom Hanks that when you tell your dad, your dad knows who Tom Hanks is - it feels like you're finally giving back to your parents. It's like you've actually done something that they can recognize, and there's something in me that makes them super proud.

For 'For Real,' where I play a singer who has to give up her passion for her husband and family, I practised singing for hours, in bathroom, in subways, though I am tone deaf.

Theatre reminds me of Bollywood.

Playing Frida was hard and wonderful. I found such a force in her, bigger than me. I tried to make it just a woman who had to do what she did. A woman who lived, ate, and laughed. I tried to avoid the 'icon' of Frida Khalo.

If I am playing a historical character, I try to watch the person in newsreels and read about them, but I will not imitate them.

I was very shy about acting. I thought you had to be confident. I was confident with my friends, but I would never think of acting in front of anyone else.