美国国家公共电台 NPR Dev Patel On The 'Driving Force' Of Playing The Part Of A Living Person

Dev Patel On The 'Driving Force' Of Playing The Part Of A Living Person

play pause stop mute unmute max volume 00:0005:23repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser¹ to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: 

It seems like an impossibly tragic² tale. A 5-year-old boy named Saroo from an impoverished³ family in India goes with his older brother to a train station one night. The big brother leaves the tired little boy there on a bench to sleep so he can go off to his night job. The little boy wakes and his brother isn't there, so he wanders onto an empty train and again falls asleep.

When Saroo wakes up, the train is hundreds of miles away from his small village. And after two days alone on this train, it finally stops in Calcutta. The child is completely alone. After living on the streets for a while, he ends up in an orphanage⁴ and, ultimately, is adopted by a family in Australia. Dev Patel plays the grown-up version of Saroo in the film "Lion." And Dev joins me now from the studios of WHYY in Philadelphia.

Dev, thanks so much for being with us.

DEV PATEL: It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.

MARTIN: I imagine, in part, what attracted you to the script was knowing that this was a true story, that - kind of, the stakes were higher. You're playing someone - not a fictional⁵ character. You're playing a real person, a real life.

PATEL: Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's - you know, the relationships in this film are still evolving as we speak. And, you know, that requires you to be a lot more delicate. But it's also the driving force when you're up at 4 a.m. and you're absolutely exhausted⁶. And you just think back to meeting Saroo for the first time or Sue, his mother, or Kamla, the mother I got to meet in India. And, you know, we cried together, laughed together. And it just gives you that extra motivation, really.

MARTIN: So what was that like when you were able to meet the real-life Saroo Brierley and talk about his life?

PATEL: He's so generous. He's so funny. He's the epitome⁸ of a fiercely driven young man. And thus, we have created a movie from his resilience and his perseverance⁹, really. But he - you know, we sat down, had breakfast together. We spoke¹⁰ about his life. You know, he told me about the idea of finding his mother from space using this app, a needle in the haystack in this vast country. And he really achieved the impossible. And, you know, with every click of that mouse, he felt he was getting one step closer to this destiny.

MARTIN: Were you able, in your conversations with him, to discern how his own revelation happened? Because in the film, it seems as if Saroo has put away that life in India to fully¹¹ be Australian, and it comes upon him like this epiphany when he's in his mid-20s. And all of a sudden, he remembers and then is myopically¹² focused on finding out where he's from. Did it transpire¹³ like that in real life, or was it something much slower over time for Saroo?

PATEL: No, it's very accurate, actually. He suppressed a lot of his past to get by in life. And there's a moment where he's at a house party in college and he goes to get some beers from the fridge. And in that fridge are these jalebis, which are Indian sugary, like, street snacks. And as a young child, he'd always yearned¹⁴ to taste one of those, but they couldn't afford it 'cause they grew up in absolute poverty. And one day, his older brother said, I want to buy you a whole vat⁷ of those.

And he's there in Melbourne in his jeans and his cool T-shirt, and all of a sudden, he's staring at these jewels. And it completely opened Pandora's box for him. And, you know, he was riddled¹⁵ with guilt¹⁶ 'cause he's living this privileged life with these wonderful, loving, Australian parents. But he thought, damn, you know, my family is - could be out there searching for me every single day on those train tracks while I live here. So I need to find them and tell them I'm OK and that I love them.

MARTIN: We should say that Saroo, as an adult, starts to grapple with his past. And he loves his adoptive parents, but he becomes pretty obsessed¹⁷ with finding his mother, his brother and his sister back in India. But he doesn't know where he's even from 'cause he was so young when he left. And so he uses Google Earth (laughter) - he uses that program to kind of scour¹⁸...

PATEL: Yeah.

MARTIN: ...These maps to try to remember where he came from. It's pretty unbelievable.

PATEL: Yeah, it's quite amazing.

MARTIN: It's interesting. It's not a dominant¹⁹ part of the film, but the idea of class and what a different life he's living, especially when he's in that moment with his college friends. They're sitting around this living room, and he's kind of processing what he's feeling. And one of his friends, who happens to also be of Indian descent, is dumbfounded by the fact that Saroo's mother carries rocks...

PATEL: Yeah.

MARTIN: ...That she is of a lower caste, that she is so desperately²⁰ poor. And he's dumbstruck by it.

PATEL: Look, when he was on those trains, he was a child who hadn't had an education. He didn't know his last name. He didn't know the name of his town. When the police or authorities asked him, you know, what his mother's name was, he said ammi, which means mom. You know, he was just a small child. And he was embarrassed by that. And it's something very deeply personal that he'd never really opened up to the world about. But he grabbed the bull by the horns and decided²¹ to do something about it.

MARTIN: Dev Patel - he stars in the new film "Lion." It comes out this week. Dev, thanks so much for talking with us.

PATEL: Thanks for having me.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NEVER GIVE UP")

SIA: (Singing) Never give up, never give up. Never give up, never give up, no, no. And I won't let you get me down. I'll keep getting up when I hit the ground. Oh, I never give up, no.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

3 impoverished   

adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化

参考例句：

• the impoverished areas of the city 这个城市的贫民区
• They were impoverished by a prolonged spell of unemployment. 他们因长期失业而一贫如洗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 orphanage   

n.孤儿院

参考例句：

• They dispensed new clothes to the children in the orphanage.他们把新衣服发给孤儿院的小孩们。
• They gave the proceeds of the sale to the orphanage.他们把销售的收入给了这家孤儿院。

5 fictional   

adj.小说的，虚构的

参考例句：

• The names of the shops are entirely fictional.那些商店的名字完全是虚构的。
• The two authors represent the opposite poles of fictional genius.这两位作者代表了天才小说家两个极端。

6 exhausted   

adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
• Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。

7 vat   

n.(=value added tax)增值税，大桶

参考例句：

• The office is asking for the vat papers.办事处要有关增值税的文件。
• His father emptied sacks of stale rye bread into the vat.他父亲把一袋袋发霉的黑面包倒进大桶里。

8 epitome   

n.典型，梗概

参考例句：

• He is the epitome of goodness.他是善良的典范。
• This handbook is a neat epitome of everyday hygiene.这本手册概括了日常卫生的要点。

9 perseverance   

n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠

参考例句：

• It may take some perseverance to find the right people.要找到合适的人也许需要有点锲而不舍的精神。
• Perseverance leads to success.有恒心就能胜利。

10 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

11 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

12 myopically   

adv.目光短浅地

参考例句：

13 transpire   

v.(使)蒸发，(使)排出 ；泄露，公开

参考例句：

• We do not know what may transpire when we have a new boss.当新老板来后，我们不知会有什么发生。
• When lack of water,commonly plants would transpire as a way for cool.在缺乏水分时，植物一般用蒸发作为降温的手段。

14 yearned   

渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The people yearned for peace. 人民渴望和平。
• She yearned to go back to the south. 她渴望回到南方去。

15 riddled   

adj.布满的；充斥的；泛滥的v.解谜，出谜题(riddle的过去分词形式)

参考例句：

• The beams are riddled with woodworm. 这些木梁被蛀虫蛀得都是洞。
• The bodies of the hostages were found riddled with bullets. 在人质的尸体上发现了很多弹孔。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 guilt   

n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责

参考例句：

• She tried to cover up her guilt by lying.她企图用谎言掩饰自己的罪行。
• Don't lay a guilt trip on your child about schoolwork.别因为功课责备孩子而使他觉得很内疚。

17 obsessed   

adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的

参考例句：

• He's obsessed by computers. 他迷上了电脑。
• The fear of death obsessed him throughout his old life. 他晚年一直受着死亡恐惧的困扰。

18 scour   

v.搜索；擦，洗，腹泻，冲刷

参考例句：

• Mother made me scour the family silver.母亲让我擦洗家里的银器。
• We scoured the telephone directory for clues.我们仔细查阅电话簿以寻找线索。

19 dominant   

adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因

参考例句：

• The British were formerly dominant in India.英国人从前统治印度。
• She was a dominant figure in the French film industry.她在法国电影界是个举足轻重的人物。

20 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。

21 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。