British actor Dev Patel says that he lived on a diet of salmon, sweet potato and lettuce to prepare for taking the lead role in upcoming action thriller Monkey Man.
The Slumdog Millionaire and Lion star spoke to RTÉ Entertainment ahead of the release of the passion project, which he created, co-wrote, directed and stars in.
He revealed that in order to get into shape for the lead role - a unnamed and extremely tough fighter who works in an underground fight club in a city in India - he ate "a whole bunch of salmon, sweet potato and lettuce three times a day for nine months."
He elaborated, "He's a guy that's posing as a waiter and scrubbing floors and infiltrating this [elite, high society] club.
"It's very grounded and very realistic. I didn't want him to be this kind of guy that is huge and bursting out of his suit.
"I wanted to create something really truthfully realistic," he said.
Speaking about what he hoped audiences will take from the movie, he said, "For me, as a genuine consumer and fan of the [action movie] genre, I wanted to see it injected with more culture and vibrancy, and real pain and pathos as well as those big, 'Woah!' moments you get when you watch films like this.
"It's a revenge film about faith," he said.
Describing how Monkey Man faced many setbacks due to filming coinciding with the Covid-19 pandemic, he recalls his debut experience of feature film directing as "a huge responsibility" and "kind of trial by fire."
"We shot it and ran right into the pandemic and had to adapt at every turn."
Describing the production as "a really humbling process", he said, "I've got to say - the hardest thing I've ever done."
He says that he hopes to direct again: "If I were so lucky to get another chance at it, I think so."
Monkey Man is in cinemas from Friday 5 April.
