whatever film you choose to make it should have some impact. mum, stop filming me. you always film me! before i was quite.| used to push myself a lot. post lockdown i calmed down and i stopped being quite so.driven, if you you like. i said, i accepted actually, a lot more of what will happen will happen. and i think that was the lesson of lockdown because we were not really in control, so the lesson was to let go and let go of the stress of trying to compete or get your projects made to the point where you get really stressed and just accept that things will happen the way they are going to happen. when you think about your work nowadays are you just as enthusiastic about making a film as you were when you did bend it like beckham 20 years ago?
families in los angeles who celebrate thanksgiving over the weekend. she is the mommy, she s the daddy and i am the alcoholic cult worshipping satanic stepmother. we re playing thanksgiving. the idea was that i wanted to make a film about the los angeles that i was seeing around me. not the one that was on the big screen. the rest will cook itself. for me, going to la i was blown away by the different communities there. why do you want to make the turkey taste like everything else we eat? and not really seeing them on screen. and hence i took my values from britain to la and made what s cooking? moving to a more sobering reality. how did the pandemic affect you as a filmmaker and a storyteller? do you think it has changed you? for me the pandemic was a game changer because it made me sit back and really think about what is my purpose and why do i want to make films? and you better believe that
i had just lost my father, just before making the film, and now when i look back at the film, it s so emotional and it s made by somebody who is grieving. it is a film made in grief, you know? and i know that from my own, the way i ve made films since. he just looks and then he. what i was exploring was exactly the pain that my father s generation had been through in orderfor me to be standing there at that moment, shooting a movie. she will only end up disappointed like me. my dad first came to britain, he had worked for barclays bank in kenya, and when he came to england in the 60s with a turban and a beard, he had said, you know, i m going to go to barclays , and he went to the barclays bank in southall and they absolutely laughed their heads off when he went in and said, do you honestly think we re ever going to have someone who looks like you, with a beard and a turban,
and women of colour on screen. and while there is always room for improvement i think it is important to acknowledge that we can make a change and we have made a change. how wedded are you to being part of british cinema? early in your career did you feel the pull of america, to take you to a new land where there would perhaps be bigger opportunities? when i had success in america i did get offered quite a lot of american movies but at that time i did not quite know how to relate to them and i met paul by then. your husband. i met paul my husband by then, yes. and then i decided, well, if i want to make a film in america why don t i make my own film? and with paul we wrote our movie which was a very british film about los angeles. no one knows it was me who made it. it is on every year on television, about four
from that moment, i am never taking no for an answer. and i keep pushing and i still push, you know? i could have a much easier life if i just went to america and directed the scripts that i get sent, you know? but i keep pushing the envelope to represent, you know, represent people that look like me and represent ideas and values from, you know, a perspective that is different. you want a clean shaven boy like your sister? or a sikh with a full beard and a turban? after that comment, right, you basically gave a filthy look to the camera and walk back. what does it say about the film industry when you look at bend it like beckham, that keira knightley went on to become a breakout star, but the other lead in the film, parminder nagra, didn t? i think it says everything you need to know about our industry. you know, keira was bankable. sojerry bruckheimer