We are now only a few weeks out from the opening of The Last Airbender, and anticipation is running high, as is trepidation, with a side order of controversy. Soon we’ll all be able to see if M. Night Shyamalan is truly up to the task of satisfying the passionate fanbase for the show, and if he’s also able to create new converts to this epic story of conquest, martial artistry, elemental magic, love, revenge, redemption, family, friendship, and flying bison. With an animated sequel to the series (called Avatar: Legend of Kora) finally in the works, the time could not be better to introduce Aang and all his friends to the masses. The movie’s potential for success or failure is huge.

But sitting unfazed by it all is Aasif Mandvi. He has little idea what he’s getting into, but that’s probably the best position for him to be in. Throughout our talk I tried to dig for any sign of nerves or fear in the guy, but to no avail. Instead, I spoke to a thoughtful and passionate performer who, while wholeheartedly professional, has the enviable ability to not take anything too seriously, least of all himself.

Shyamalan: The First iBender

DAN KAUFMAN: In our interview with Night he said that he’s kind of a control freak. Did that manifest on set at all?

AASIF MANDVI: I can only say it if he says it. (laughs)

DAN: He did. But it sounds like it comes from a place of true affection for the material, and he just wanted everything to be right.

AASIF: Yeah. I would say he’s a control freak. But the truth is, many directors are control freaks. You become a director because you wanna tell everybody what to do and how to do it, you know? But at the end of the day, Night is an auteur. He’s somebody who creates a world that’s distinctly got his tone to it, in the same way that painters and writers do. He creates a feel and tone to his work that is very specifically him. So, in order to get that, he has to ask for exactly what he wants. And he does.

DAN: How was your experience with him different from other directors you’ve worked with?

AASIF: Well, some directors are very loose. Like with comedies, it’s much more about playing and improvising and riffing. In this, Night was more specific about things that he wanted. He’s like a musical conductor. He knows exactly what the musicality of the scene is supposed to be—he’s mapped it out in his head already. And the good thing about that is he doesn’t waste a lot of time, because he knows where he wants to go and how he wants to get there.

DAN: Yeah, he was saying his first table reads take so long because he would frequently be jumping up and describing scenes in great detail, acting out camera moves and such.

AASIF: Well, and this is an indication how technology is working today in making films, Night had many of his shots already animated onto his iPod.

DAN: Oh, cool!

AASIF: Yeah, he had them in an animated format so that he could see where he wanted the camera to go, and how he wanted to do it. So he was recreating things that had already been plotted out very specifically. It wasn’t like working with a director who’s figuring out where the shot is and how to do it [on the fly]. Because when you’re working on a huge production like this—this is not some indie film, you know what I mean?

DAN: Yeah, seriously. This is kind of a big deal.

AASIF: You can’t spend the whole afternoon figuring out how to set up this shot. I mean, you can’t do that on an indie film, either. But the thing is that he didn’t have that luxury, because there was a lot to do. There were a lot of things, CGI-wise and special effects-wise. So it’s quite a mammoth task. The good thing was that he had it all planned out — how he wanted the shot to ultimately look and how he wanted the camera to move. I’m sure that he varied from it to some degree, but for the most part, it was all kind of set up. He could tell you, “This is where I’m going with the camera.”

DAN: He also mentioned he doesn’t do a lot of coverage.

AASIF: He doesn’t do a lot of coverage and he doesn’t like to cut, which sometimes makes it hard for the actor, because you gotta get it, you know? It makes it difficult because normally, you can cut away, you can cut back. There was one scene that I did where we had to get it in one take, and it was a big, long scene! So the camera, the actor, everything had to work together as one. But then, when it works, it looks amazing. You’re like, “He got that all in one take?!” And that’s part of his style. I think that’s why the special effects and everything are gonna look so cool in this movie, because he doesn’t do a lot of cutting. The special effects, the waterbending and the firebending and all that stuff, it’s all being done in these long takes. I don’t think we’ve seen that before. I don’t think we’ve seen Night’s style in a special effects movie like this before.

DAN: I don’t think we have, either.

AASIF: It’s not gonna be like a lot of action movies, where you’re just like cut, cut, cut, cut, and half the time you don’t actually know what you’re watching. You’re just seeing a lot of close-ups. You know you ended up at the end of a battle, but you don’t quite know what happened. I think that’s what’s gonna be so cool about it; these long takes. That’s gonna be what makes it unique. So, on one hand it looks awesome. On the other hand sometimes it’s hard for the actors and for the special effects people and everybody involved. (laughs) And for Night himself, you know?

His Name is Not Inigo Montoya

DAN: So, I’d imagine you have a certain amount of recognition from The Daily Show, right?

AASIF: Sure.

DAN: Do people stop you on the street a lot?

AASIF: A fair amount. Yeah, I mean, we have our demographic, which is a lot of people in New York.

DAN: The reason why I ask is because something like Airbender has the potential to be mammoth. I’m wondering if you’re prepared for, say, appearances at Comic Cons?

AASIF: I’m not. I’ve never gone to those things. I’m not a comic book person. I’m not really a geek in that way. So I’m very curious to go and experience all of that. It’s definitely interesting. Look, I don’t know what’s gonna happen. I don’t worry about how mammoth it’s gonna be. This business is fickle. For me this was like doing an epic play, which I’ve done many of. And I had a great time. If I get people who are a completely different demographic than people who watch The Daily Show recognizing me, I guess that’s a good thing. It can only be good, you know? So, my short answer is no, I’m not prepared for that. (laughs)

DAN: You realize there may be an action figure of you?

AASIF: There already is! They sent it to me!

DAN: How’s it look?

AASIF: Well, it’s weird having a hand in creating your own action figure. They send you this picture and they’re like, “Tell us if you approve the likeness.” And I was like, “It looks like Mandy Patinkin. I look like Mandy Patinkin!”

DAN: (laughs) I would not have guessed that.

AASIF: And I’m like, “Yeah. I mean, if you want me to look like Mandy Patinkin, then fine. It’s great. Nothing wrong with Mandy Patinkin. He’s a very attractive man, but I don’t think I look like Mandy Patinkin.” So they said, “Well, what doesn’t look like you?” And I said, “The face. So, let’s start there.” (laughs) And then they said, “Well, specifically.” And it was weird to be like, “Well, I think the cheekbones need to be a little higher. And I don’t believe my mouth is that small,” you know what I mean?

DAN: Yeah, how well do you know your own features that you can describe yourself in such detail —

AASIF: You’re like, “Well, you know, you could make him a lot more handsome.”

DAN: (laughs) Always!

AASIF: “And he’s got much bigger biceps.”

DAN: Flowing hair.

AASIF: And then suddenly he looks like Fabio.

DAN: “Daddy, was Fabio in the Airbender movie?”

AASIF: Yeah, it’s like, “Why does Zhao in the movie look like Aasif Mandvi from The Daily Show, and this action figure looks a lot like Fabio, if Fabio was played by Mandy Patinkin?”

All About Today’s Special

DAN: So, your next project is also kind of a big deal for you. What is Today’s Special?

AASIF: Today’s Special is a totally different kind of movie from Airbender. It’s sort of inspired by my one-man show, Sakina’s Restaurant, that was done off-Broadway a number of years ago. I wrote the movie with Jon Bines, who used to be a writer for The Daily Show and now writes for Jimmy Kimmel. It’s a romantic comedy about Indian food, set in an Indian restaurant, and it’s just a great little movie. I’m very proud of it. It’s directed by David Kaplan, who did a movie called Year of the Fish. It stars myself, this great Bollywood actor named Naseeruddin Shah, and Madhur Jaffrey, a lovely Indian actress who plays my mother. For those of you who know, she’s also the impresario of Indian food, Indian cuisine, and Indian cookbooks in the U.S. and in the West. She’s a rock star in the food world. We’ve also got Jess Weixler, who people might know from the movie called Teeth. We’ve got Kevin Corrigan from Superbad and other movies. We’ve got Dean Winters from 30 Rock. Ajay Naidu, from Office Space. Harish Patel, another big Bollywood star. So we’ve got a great cast of people. We shot it all in an Indian Restaurant in Jackson Heights. It’s full of Indian food, family, great Bollywood tunes, and great Western music. We premiered it at the London Film Festival, and then we played a bunch of festivals in the U.S. We’re gonna be on about 130 screens across the U.S. in October.

DAN: I read that you yourself are not much of a cook, but you were still drawn to the material?

AASIF: In the same way as with the martial arts, right? We didn’t have two months, but we took a few weeks of cooking lessons with some chefs. There’s a chef named Kevin Patricio who is here in New York, and a guy named Akhtar Nawab who also is an Indian chef here in town. They taught me how to chop and look like I could put a dish together. And what those guys do—it’s like martial arts. You look at it and go, “Wow, you make it look so easy.” Then you try to do it, and you go, “All right. I now have bloody fingers.” (laughs) But it was really fun to do. And it was just a labor of love for me. I feel like there haven’t been a lot of real stories that have come out of the U.S. that are about the South Asian Muslim immigrant experience. And so, I feel like this is a movie that deals with a lot of different things. I think people will just come out of the theater and first, want to have a big Indian meal. Second, since it’s a feel-good, totally romantic movie, you’ll just want to make out with your girlfriend.

DAN: Just brush your teeth first.

AASIF: (laughs) Yeah, for the curry breath.

One Final, Crucial Question

DAN: Back to The Last Airbender. With Jackson Rathbone in the film, you are now officially one degree removed from the Twilight phenomenon — to say nothing of the fact that Airbender is opening just two days after Eclipse, putting the two films in competition for the July 4th weekend. So who wins in a smackdown between Commander Zhao and Edward Cullen?

AASIF: Edward Cullen is the main guy? Robert Pattinson?

DAN: He’s the main guy, yeah.

AASIF: Dude, come on. Zhao would just kill that guy. Pattinson would be like, “Oooh, I’m a vampire. I’m gonna come at you and suck your blood!” And Zhao would be like, “You’re now burned to a smithereen. I just threw fire at you and now you’re just a big mass of crumbly soot.” (laughs) There’s no contest! You can’t fight a firebender! I mean, the only way that Robert Pattinson could win is to flirt with him to the point where Zhao was like, “He’s so cute, I don’t wanna kill him. I kinda want to snuggle with him.”

DAN: (laughs) “For the good of the Fire Nation I must snuggle with this vampire.”

AASIF: Then that way, he’d survive. Because otherwise, Zhao would just burn him from the inside out. And then roast ‘im!

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