The Big Picture

Crafting visceral, primal action in Monkey Man was crucial for Dev Patel, influenced by martial arts legends like Bruce Lee.
Patel’s journey from training in martial arts at a young age to directing and starring in his debut film is a testament to his vision.
With nods to Indonesian and Korean cinema, Monkey Man offers a unique take on action films, pushing boundaries with its jagged feel.

Though Monkey Man has drawn John Wick comparisons since its plot was revealed, the distinctions are clear. Where Chad Stahelski and Keanu Reeves have mastered the art of a frenetic ballet that packs a punch, first-time director and star Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) was conscious of creating a tooth-and-nail action film that feels “jagged.” Still, it doesn’t hurt to have John Wick producers backing your first-ever movie, though it wasn’t without its challenges.

Monkey Man is based on a story written by Patel, who’s been working on this feature since his twenties. It’s the spiritual and physical journey of a man called Kid (Patel), who takes a vengeful stand of violence against the corrupt elite who murdered his mother and continue to wield their power over the poor and defenseless. The movie also stars Sharlto Copley (Chappie), Pitobash (Million Dollar Arm), Sobhita Dhulipala (The Night Manager), and Sikandar Kher (Monica, O My Darling).

During this interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, Patel shares his influences, like Bruce Lee (Enter the Dragon) and Indonesian and Korean cinema, and speaks about his own martial arts background. The director and star also discusses why the film was dropped from Netflix before executive producer Jordan Peele was attached and pushed for a theatrical release. In this action renaissance, where stuntmen like Stahelski and David Leitch are sitting behind the camera, Patel also talks about how he recognized the potential of stuntman Stephen Renney (Renfield) and his passion for camera work to provide visceral shots, the fight choreographer he found on YouTube, Brahim Chab (Bang Bang), the oners throughout the movie, and more, including if he’ll be returning to the director’s chair in the future. You can watch the full conversation in the video above, or read the transcript below.

Monkey Man A recently released ex-felon living in India struggles to adjust to a world of corporate greed and eroding spiritual values.

Read Our ‘Monkey Man’ Review

COLLIDER: I really want to start with a sincere congratulations. I’m really impressed with what you pulled off on your debut film, and I just want to say congrats.

DEV PATEL: It means a lot coming from you. Thank you.

There’s no way people aren’t going to lose their shit when they watch the movie. I think the most immediate thing is, people are going to see this and other directors are gonna see this, and other people in the industry are going to see this, and be like, “Oh, he needs to do more action.” So, are you ready for that phone call?

PATEL: I don’t know, man. I need a good nap and a holiday after this. I gotta be honest. [Laughs]

There’s going to be a lot more calls for Dev the action star.

PATEL: I mean, I hope for loads of other people. I hope this kicks the door open like Slumdog did. It’s about representation. It’s about infusing the genre with new stories, new perspectives, different cultural kinds of viewpoints. So, that’s the mission accomplished, I guess.

I have some curves that I like to throw at the beginning of the interview. There’s gonna be people out there that have never seen anything you’ve done before. If someone has never seen anything, what’s the first thing you’d like them watching and why?

PATEL: Probably Lion, maybe I did a film called Lion with a wonderful director, Garth Davis. It’s about this kid who gets separated from his family in India and grows up in Australia and tracks them down via Google. But every performance in that is breathtaking. The young child, Sunny [Pawar], in that — oh my god. It’s really a hopeful, resilient story. Love that. If you’re up for something a little bit weirder, David Lowery. I did this movie with him called The Green Knight. I just think he is a magical human being, and his brain, the way it works and the kindness he imbues in his process…

Image via Transmission Films

I recommend both of those films strongly.

PATEL: Thank you.

What does it mean to be part of the thing that finally won Wes [Anderson] an Oscar?

PATEL: Oh my god, yeah! [The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More]. That’s crazy he hasn’t won an Oscar. Wes is awesome. He didn’t show up, did he?

He was getting ready to film his new movie in Spain or something the next morning.

PATEL: Again, what a treat to be a tiny cog in one of Wes Anderson’s complex mechanisms.

You and Kaya [Scodelario], you guys are having a good year. She is also with The Gentleman.

PATEL: Oh, the Guy Ritchie TV show. Yeah, she’s amazing in everything.

So it’s been, like, 15 years since Skins. Do you think at any point down the road there will be some sort of reunion or some sort of something to celebrate? That was a big thing for a whole generation.

PATEL: Hey, I still feel like that dude, Anwar — awkward. I mean, it would be amazing. They’re amazing. Every single one of those souls in that is just truly special.

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A lot of people grew up with that show.

PATEL: Yeah, they did.

So on Twitter, a lot of people asked me to ask this: when will you do a rom-com?

PATEL: [Laughs] I don’t know. I love rom-coms. You’ve got to put some happiness and some warm, fuzzy feelings out in the world, so I’m down.

Yeah, I’m throwing that out there. People seem very interested in it.

“What Happened to Dev Patel?”
Image via Universal Pictures

I’ve heard everything about what went on to make this project happen — how it was originally streaming, and Jordan Peele. I was in the audience at the SXSW world premiere, so what was it like for you walking out there, the emotions that you must have felt with Jordan just standing there putting his name on the project, and everything you went through to get to that moment, and then the crazy reaction of the crowd?

PATEL: It was like the paint wasn’t even dry on the film. We’d literally just finished the DI and I’d done a quick mad scramble pass at the sound on the movie. There were some issues technically at the beginning of the film and I was absolutely losing my mind. I was like, “I’m ready to be hung, drawn and quartered.” And just an amount of goodwill for the film, for me, it was very overwhelming. I’d made a joke that because there’d been these things of, like, “Where is he now? What happened to Dev Patel?” And I was like, “Well, this is where I’ve been.” But it was nothing short of humbling. I felt so blessed, and I did shed a tear, which was slightly embarrassing. I turned away, but I couldn’t help it. It was just seeing all those people stand up, and, yeah, man. Bless those souls in that theater.

Dev Patel Wanted ‘Monkey Man’ to Feel Primal

But here’s the thing, they’re not giving you some bullshit reception. People love the movie. There is some crazy-ass action in this film that’s bone-crunching, blood-splattering. There are things in the action scenes where I’m like, “Okay, holy F.” So I wanna actually specifically talk about that. How important was it for you to craft action that was very visceral and pushing the boundaries of what gets shown in a movie?

PATEL: The film requires patience. I was like, “We’re going to make the audience sit in this section of world-building, philosophy, or whatever, but when we give it, we’re going to give it and we’re gonna go.” For me, it was like, what would real self-defense feel like? This guy is like a caged animal. He’s cornered. It has to be primal and gritty and messy, and like gritted teeth and drool and scratching, biting. I didn’t want it to feel like choreo, so every time I would feel like, “Oh, we’re falling into too much of a choreo kind of feel. How can we make it more jagged? How can we change the camera? How can we not cut as much?” For me, it was some of the hardest acting I’ve ever done in terms of having to express through that. You have to, no pun intended, swing big with the emotion and to make it sit in your body correctly. I’m a gangly, awkward dude. It was tough, but I think we did a cool job with it.

We hired one of the stunt guys who had a dream of being a camera operator. I saw him, and he was doing little pre-vises on his Canon camera, and I was like, Stephen [Renney], you’re like a ninja, dude. You’re doing the falls like all the stuntmen. What if we put a camera on your hand and you could roll with me, and you could get under the armpit of the action?” It gives it this kind of primal feel, which is really cool.

Mission accomplished.

PATEL: Thank you.

I’m fascinated by the editing process because it’s where it all comes together. Who did you show it to that gave you really brutal and honest feedback that made you look at the film in a new way, that possibly made you change something that you would have never thought about changing?

PATEL: We didn’t show it to many people. At one point, when I was really struggling, the director of Lion, Garth, I sent it to him. Garth, the stuff he responds to, he’s like, “Now I know why you’re doing the movie.” He looked right through the action, because I knew the action was sitting at a good place, and he went right to the philosophy and the religion and the spiritualism. He’s just someone I trusted, and so he was great.

Netflix Dropped ‘Monkey Man’ “Due to Its Nature”
Image via Universal

Was there anything that you changed as a result of feedback from people?

PATEL: We’ve constantly been changing the movie. It’s difficult when you’re a first-time filmmaker, and then you’re making a film and then it gets on an island during a pandemic. We had no money. I literally have shots from my mobile phone in there, and GoPros. It was really hectic making this thing. Then, we hadn’t even finished and Netflix had swooped in and bought it. I don’t think they quite knew what they were buying, but they were very supportive at the time. They eventually let go of the film because of the nature of it, and I thought we were lost. But we were chasing a certain set of creative notes, and then you constantly find yourself chasing your tail, but what I found in this process is the film snaps back like a rubber band to its truest intention and what it’s always supposed to be. The film tells you what it needs to be, and that’s what happened with this. Every time I tried to push it too far in a different direction, or pushed more and more action, or whatever, it just didn’t quite work. This is where it sat and felt right for me and Jordan [Peele] and the guys.

Did you end up with a lot of deleted scenes?

PATEL: There’s a lot. Actually, I think some of my best directed stuff, like compositionally, didn’t make it in the cut. That was hard.

Are you a fan of extended cuts or are you a fan of people never seeing the deleted scenes?

PATEL: I think we’re going to chuck the deleted scenes out there on the DVD extras. There’s a whole alternate beginning and a whole alternate ending. It ended differently. The villain had a whole different intro, which was unbelievable. But, you know, it went.

I’ve spoken to a lot of filmmakers, and it’s so interesting because some, like Denis [Villeneuve] on Dune, won’t show any. The deleted scenes are gone. We will never see them. Then there’s other directors, like Ridley Scott, who will release a whole other version with tons of other stuff. I’m curious what you’ll end up being as a filmmaker.

PATEL: I think for me, it’s like, I was in my twenties when I started writing it and then I shot it when I was, I don’t know, 29, 30. For me, it’s nothing. There’s no pretentiousness about it. You see my heart and soul, bits that work, bits that didn’t. The working out is on the page and there for everyone to see. But I threw everything at it, and I’m proud of it.

Will Dev Patel Direct More Movies?

And you should be. Are you already thinking about future films? Do you want to lean into being more of a director or are you thinking more about acting? Are you thinking about doing both again?

PATEL: I think both. Both is the honest answer. As a performer, I’ve never felt like the most technically-adept actor. Even when it comes to words, it’s been difficult. So for me, I’ve always gone on a feeling basis. I’m the type of guy that listens to the same song over and over, and everyone around me is like, “Can we stop listening to that song by Ben Howard or whatever?” And I don’t even know the lyrics, but the feeling of it– And I kind of experience things very visually, so for me, actually holding a camera or knowing how to frame something or how I wanted to light a scene, it came very instinctually, which was surprising to me. It was fun challenging everyone around me to, “Let’s just try and hold the shot longer. Let’s try and do this…” So, yeah, I’d love to do it again, if I was so lucky to get the opportunity.

You’re gonna get lucky again. I’m really not worried. I’ve been doing this a long time. What does it mean to you to have the producers of John Wick and people that worked on The Raid as part of this movie?

PATEL: Man, it’s crazy. I mean, they are action icons. It was cool. We couldn’t actually get the John Wick stunt team that I did a bit of training with in LA because of COVID and the border closures. So we found this amazing gentleman, Brahim Chab, who we found on YouTube. He was in Thailand and the border hadn’t closed. We got him in, like, a day before it closed. He came in and he was a beast. We had the best time together. For me, it’s not just a director that comes in and watches stunt guys do it, and you’re like, “Okay, that looks good. Can you make it a bit faster?” I was in it. I was performing, and I was like, “Hey, I know you’ve put that kick in, but look, I can actually do this kick. What if we do that?” So, it became this amazing collaboration with the team.

How Bruce Lee Influenced ‘Monkey Man’
Image via Warner Bros.

Someone on my staff pointed out that, like, 20 years ago, they sent me an article about you winning a martial arts tournament. I saw the pictures, and I don’t think people realize your history with this, which enabled you to do things that maybe someone else couldn’t have done. Can you talk about your history with martial arts and your fascination or love of it? Because one of the things that I loved about the movie is you don’t have a lot of quick cuts. You have more oners, you have more long shots, which really pull the audience in even if they don’t realize it.

PATEL: It’s a brilliant question. So the genesis of it was me watching Bruce Lee through a banister as a kid. Enter the Dragon — that was the beginning of my love of cinema, period. Seeing a guy like that, that I related to skin pigment-wise, hair, everything, I was like, “God, I want to be like that dude.” Then I started ferociously watching everything — Jet Lee, Sammo [Hung], Donnie Yen, Jackie [Chan]. Then the Indonesian Raid films, Korean cinema. That took my breath away, and took it to a whole new level of filmmaking for me.

In terms of the action for the movie, it does start a bit cutier when he’s not as trained and he can’t control his emotions. The concept was, “This is my face, this is my body. How can you break as many things in this bathroom with it? Rag doll me.” [Laughs] That was the beginning. Then, as he learns to kind of harness his instrument and hone his powers, that’s when the sequences hold for longer and you start to see him. But it just came from a place of, the film’s called Monkey Man, we’re going to make it primal, and that was kind of the genesis of the action.

Monkey Man is now in theaters.

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