I think that the biggest challenge for me making films is how much of your life you give to something. Shooting the film requires 14-hour days, six days a week.
Doing a sitcom is like doing a play - you rehearse for three or four days, and then you shoot what you rehearsed on Friday night in front of an audience. An hour-long drama is like shooting a movie. You're shooting 13-14 hour days. The endurance itself is different.
In TV, you're basically shooting an episode in 10 to 14 days; 14 days is a luxury situation. And in film, you have anywhere from a month to three months, or it can be even longer than that, depending on what the production is.
On a movie, you often work fourteen-, sixteen-hour days, six days a week, for six months. It is so easy to let up because of fatigue.
A lot of people don't know that I had a special appearance in 'Keratam'; that was my first Telugu film. I only shot for four to five days. When they called me, I said, 'I can't give 60 days for a movie. If you have something for one week or 10 days, then I can accommodate.'
I try to work out six days a week, you know, weights two days a week, and I try to run those six days, so I get good cardio.
I was a mailman walking in the snow six days a week, 12-hour days. Every two weeks, I'd get a check for $228.
When you talk about a daily soap, it means one would be seen 28 days a month, which requires 30 days of shooting. So an actor being seen on a show airing four days a week and being telecast thrice a day comes along with a baggage of the character.
When I went to Sundance back in 1998, indie film was all the rage, and Miramax was throwing down five or six million dollars for several films each year. Those were the salad days of indie film, and those days are over. I'm not out there worrying too much about it.
You never know the biggest day of your life is your biggest day, not until it’s happening. You don’t recognize the biggest day of your life, not until you’re right in the middle of it. The day you commit to something or someone. The day you get your heart broken. The day you meet your soul mate. The day you realize there’s not enough time because you wanna live forever. Those are the biggest days. The perfect days.
But I think we're going to have people who work from home a couple of days a week, three days a week, four days a week. And I'm perfectly comfortable with all that.
You live the life of a dancer. It is not your job, it is your life, and you have to love it so much to be able to take it every day for six days a week, sometimes seven.
When I was making films, we had a lot of time for the fighting scenes. But in TV, we don't have much time to think about how to do the fighting, because there are only seven days for an episode. You have to hurry. This is a challenge.
The great thing about chefs as celebrities is it gives you a larger stage to let people know how important great food is. You're able to reach a nation. The hardest thing about being a celebrity chef is you go from working 18-hour days in your kitchen to it pulling you out of your kitchen here and there. I used to be in my kitchen six or seven days a week, and for ten years I never even took a vacation.
I exercise six days a week for one hour in the morning.
I can do something for 30 days or 50 days. I can program myself, but I can't give my year for a shooting. No, I will die. I can't handle it.
I was doing a lot of boxing through 'Lost,' thrashing a bag at least three days a week. If I had shirtless scenes, I'd do it six days a week.