The first thing Freida Pinto does after saying hi to me on the phone is apologize. We were meant to meet via Zoom earlier in the day, but overrun interviews and her commute from her hotel meant we had to reschedule for a phone call in the late afternoon—hardly her fault, but Pinto is unfailingly polite, issuing a sincere thanks for my flexibility.
The day of our interview, in late June, Pinto had been in Austin (she and husband Cory Tran and their son, Rumi-Ray, split their time between Austin and Los Angeles) doing virtual press for her upcoming film Mr. Malcolm’s List before flying out to New York after our conversation for more promo. 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.
Her professionalism is unsurprising when you think about the fact that Pinto has been a famous actress for the last 15 years, catapulting to fame with Slumdog Millionaire in 2008. 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.
All of this is what makes it so satisfying to see her step into her role in Mr. Malcolm’s List, both as an actress and an executive producer. It’s not that Freida Pinto has met the moment; it’s that the moment has finally caught up to her brilliance. Ahead, the actress and producer discusses her involvement in the film, moving on from “stereotypical, exotic roles,” and being a working parent.
Mr. Malcolm’s List initially started as a short film [released in 2019] adapted from a book. How did the material come your way, and what interested you about the short?
I was in New York shooting a TV show for Hulu, and I remember very distinctly, my very dear friend, Laura [Lewis], who’s one of the producers on the film, came over one evening. We were just hanging out, chatting, catching up on our various production companies, hers and mine. And then she mentioned this project that she was trying to get off the ground, and mentioned that they had a script, and it was on The Black List and that the director had a very specific idea—which, she didn't tell me the idea right then. So then she sends me the script, and I read it, and I obviously absolutely love it, and in my head I’m going, “Oh, I wonder what the idea is.”
So the idea was that [the director] Emma [Holly Jones] had just watched Hamilton, and she was so inspired by it that she wanted to make Mr. Malcolm’s List in the same world as Hamilton, where we are multiracial, but we’re not really spending any time talking about race and we’re not spending any time trying to justify our presence in this film. She just wanted this movie to be a romantic comedy about people who fall in love. There’s a comedic revenge plot and emotions, ups and downs, and all of that beautiful stuff. And that idea completely had me floored. But of course, what we would have to do is make a proof of concept, because nothing like this had been done before.
Emma was aware that it was her first film, so she would have to really prove what her vision was all about. So that’s how we ended up making the short first as a proof of concept, and we thought it would get funded immediately because the idea was so novel and so genius, but then of course, that’s not what happened. We didn’t get funded for about four years. Eventually, when the film got made, it got made exactly the way we wanted it to, but we made the short film four years ago. And I’m really happy and proud that this day has finally come when this [feature-length] film releases.
With the book and the short film, Mr. Malcolm’s List has been in the works since long before Bridgerton hit the scene, but the two are drawing a lot of comparison, thanks in part to the inclusive casting in both. Did the Bridgerton effect impact the movie at all?
The Bridgerton effect impacted us getting financed but didn’t impact the movie because the idea already existed even before Bridgerton, that this is how we wanted to do it. But it definitely impacted the way it opened people’s minds and also investors to see how fabulous the potential was in investing in a film that was so multiracial and was completely celebrating love, so I think it definitely helped us get the numbers. But in terms of the concept, I think we can credit Hamilton for that.
You are also listed as an executive producer on the feature. What made you want to be involved in this particular movie behind the scenes as well as on camera?
I kind of came on board to basically really get the film off the ground. I knew that it would require funding and financing, and we'd need to attract that. And you know how this industry goes: You attach names to your project—names that are recognizable and have some credibility—and people get more interested.
So that was why I first lent my name, but one of the things that I feel most proud of is that Zawe [Ashton]’s casting was something I was suggesting and pushing for for almost a year, actually. But it was only towards the end when an actress had to drop out of the project and everyone was scrambling for an answer to like, How do we solve this problem?
And I was like, “Zawe Ashton, you people, I’ve been telling you this for a long time!” I worked with her on Guerilla, and she was just so magical and magnetic in that film. And this film required focus on female friendship and sisterhood, and I knew I would be able to build it fantastically with her. That was a thing that as an actor, I probably wouldn't have been consulted, but because I was one of the producers, I was in on the ins and outs of what was happening and was very proud that this idea worked out.
As you mentioned, it took a while to get the film off the ground. Can you talk a little bit about what that process was like for you as an actor and a producer? And did you learn anything in particular from that experience?
Once we got the short film made, it just took a lot of waiting—a lot of waiting to get people convinced that we were really trying to make a film that was meaningful, but the short film came out, and the reception was insane. People were just asking us over and over again, where is the rest of the movie?
But in that time, we all went off, did our own other projects, but when we came back, we came back with the same determination and excitement to make this. We shot this film in 2021, so still the height of COVID during an insane lockdown in Ireland. And I will say, I shot about three movies during COVID, and this film easily felt like the most insane bonding experience, because I think everyone had been waiting for such a long time to make it happen.
The period-romance genre is really a behemoth of its own at this point, and something that has seen so much lasting power. Why do you think it’s a genre that we’re so drawn to, and that we return to time and again?
One of the things that I’m thinking of right at the top of my head is that we all think about a time before cell phones, before technology. Everything was slower. And yet there were beautiful love stories, these sweeping love stories we’re watching in film as well as now in Bridgerton—the beautiful romance. We have all of these emotions that we crave for every single day in our lives. And like our crazy dating world today, where we just can’t seem to find the person who feels like a perfect match—in so many ways, all of that existed, even before Tinder and Bumble and all of it, and I feel there’s something magical about the slowness of that time.
I don’t mean it in a boring way, but the slowness is almost romantic in many ways—the writing of letters, as opposed to sending an “ILU” on a text message, or sending out an emoji. There’s almost the charm of really putting your heart into something. And I feel like going back to the period movies constantly is a reminder of the slowness and the beauty of that time. And then, of course, if you think of the universality of the themes, you know, [like] how women were treated in society then, and how they are looked in society today. I mean, not to get too dark, but women don’t even have rights today in certain parts of the world, including our own.
Even back then, women had the same pressures. They had to be married and bear children by a set age, and if they didn’t, they were looked upon as if something was wrong with them. There’s that relatability of those themes, which I think when we go back to the period films, we can say not much has changed. We relate to it immediately, going, “Oh, my God, this has been going on forever.” And that is why we root for strong female characters. And that is why in this film, it was so important for me that Julia and Selena are not 18-year-olds. We were playing older women who had been around a bunch of seasons and had not found a match.
One feels the pressure of being jilted in public, and the other one feels the pressure of being the oldest of many kids and needing to find someone to marry so that she can have a better future for her, for her siblings. All of those pressures again, are very relatable.
And then, of course, last but not least, it’s the glamour of that time as well. The corsets, the ballroom, the feathers, the bonnets, the gorgeous, strapping men on their horses. All of it is very fantastical; you fantasize about it. So I do believe there is a charm to these period movies that is almost never going to die. As much as we innovate, the core of it is still going to be an escape to a time that was different from the time that we live in now.
You burst onto the scene with Slumdog Millionaire. Since then you’ve spoken in previous interviews about maybe being dissatisfied with some of your past roles, ones that weren’t as substantive as you wanted them to be. How are you feeling about the way your career has evolved over the years?
Yeah, and I think those roles that I played right after Slumdog Millionaire, I did not necessarily feel that I was given something to really play that was worth my time and I could really stretch my acting chops with. I think those were all roles that I had to play in order to realize and recognize the kind of roles I don’t want to play again. And there’s no other way of knowing when you’re a newcomer in the industry, you kind of have to do it all—especially when you’re a newcomer and a minority at the same time, where people don’t exactly know what to do with you, or what kind of role to place you in. So they constantly send you the more stereotypical, exotic roles, and you look at it, and you barf and you go, “Okay, I guess I’ve got to do this one just because I’ve got to make money,” or, “Yeah, I’ve got to do this one just because I want exposure.”
And I think everything in the end pays off. So I look back at those roles and I go, “Am I necessarily proud of my performance in this?” Or, you know, “Am I proud of what I did?” And I think the answer is that I’m not proud, but I’m really glad I did them because now, the work that I do, the pride that I feel, and every little thing that I put in a big role or a small role is so huge because the choice was entirely mine. I really do see them as little learning curves, stepping-stone experiences.
Is that part of why you have your own production company, to be able to have more of a hand in the storytelling aspect?
Absolutely, absolutely. That is one of the reasons why I started my production company, not just for me to act in, but to tell stories of women that don’t usually get told, stories that people are so afraid to back their money on, like Mr. Malcolm’s List. It’s important for me to back those projects, to get those projects made, to nurture them creatively from the ground up. My producing partner, Emily Verellan Storm, and I—the two of us work in a very coordinated way. She has her strengths, I have my strengths, and we kind of just pump all our energy into this production house. We feel very proud of the work that we are bringing out into the world in the near future.
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You’ve had an especially busy few years. You welcomed your son last year—congratulations. How has it been for you, being a working parent?
That is probably the busiest I’ve ever been, yeah. I’ve worked in this industry for 15 years, but my God—having a baby. It’s been a lot of juggling. It’s been a lot of being extremely exhausted, like an exhaustion that I thought I understood when I was doing night shoots. And I’m like, No, have a baby—that’s exhaustion. But at the same time, it’s incredibly, incredibly satisfying. It’s like when you’re nurturing a film, that is your baby as well. Every little progress it makes and every little progress your baby makes, you just get so excited. And you feel like, This is the fruit of my hard work and staying up and losing sleep and whatnot—it’s all paying off. It’s one of the best roles I’ve played to date, is being Rumi-Ray’s mother.
Since giving birth, you’ve spoken on Instagram about what the postpartum journey has been like for you. What made you want to talk about it so openly?
Yeah, I invested in this company called Anya. I’m the chief impact officer, and that all happened very organically. I come from a culture in India where the postpartum journey is so nurtured and it’s so important. The first 30 to 40 days after giving birth, the mother is taken care of, food is prepared for her, she is almost not allowed to get out of bed because she’s resting and healing from either the stitches, or if she had a C-section, she’s healing from the surgery because C-section is a very serious surgery.
So for me, it was so important that I created my own postpartum sanctuary based on my Indian upbringing and culture, and then I realized that so many women have had horror stories—postpartum, like, the first 30 days is hell, and breastfeeding is not an easy journey at all. Like, that was definitely my hell, trying to wrap my head around how painful breastfeeding was. Also, it didn’t feel as natural because it felt like my baby’s latch needed to be better, and my nipples were bleeding, and it was all kinds of craziness. Now, I imagine not having to deal with that, or having to deal with no rest, constantly having to figure out your health, the food that you’re going to eat. I had my mother with me the whole time.
So it became very important to me to not just be part of this company, but also to spread the message on why the postpartum period is very important, why policy in this country needs to change towards women in general—I’m not even going to go there, because that’s one of the most exhausting conversations and I’m so angered right now that I think I’ll just start spewing venom, so I think I’m just going to stay away from that for a bit—but why it is so important for women after they’ve given birth to not feel the pressure to go back to work within six weeks, or three weeks.
Maternity leave in this country is so badly handled, and so whatever support we can provide women given the circumstances that we are in, knowing that that policy change might take a long time, knowing that having only that one doctor’s visit at six weeks is ridiculous—women need to be checked in on more often—knowing that all of this was what we have been put up against, it became even more important for me to use my platform and to amplify other ways in which women can be supported.
Mr. Malcom’s List is now showing in theaters.
