Shelly Malil fo scho

'Hey Bambi,' it's Haziz

"Virgin" takes actor's career to next level

By Jon Chattman, for thecheappop.com - 2006

Shelley Malil is probably the only person who could draw laughter by uttering the words Al Qaeda. As Haziz, one-half of an Indian comedic duo in last year's hit comedy "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," the Indian-born actor alongside co-star Gerry Bednob (as Mooj) stole scenes from star Steve Carell as a pair of disgruntled electronic store clerks. ("How come we never get invited to parties? What are we, fucking Al Qaeda?" being a key one-liner.) Despite newfound fame (especially in frat houses throughout the world), Malil has compiled a long list of television, film, and stage credits for over a decade. The actor is nationally known as one of the "What are you doing?" Budweiser guys from years back. But, entering "Virgin" territory has clearly propelled his career to new heights. The actor has several projects in the works or in the can, including a role in the "Garfield" sequel "A Tale of Two Kitties." He's also pitching a television show to the networks.

JC: Did you expect the movie to be as big as it was?

SM: I like most people when we were filming it, thought that the audience, the public would just love it, but we also thought the critics would hate. So, the biggest surprise wasn't that it was a hit, it was a bigger surprise with how the critics really thought that it was a good film. It even got nominated for a WGA award. So, that I think caught everybody by surprise. I think most cast members thought that it was going to hit a certain group: the college group, young people, but I was very surprised when I heard from a lot of females of how sweet of a love story it was and how sweet it was. The female audience, the audience, and the critics, I think was truly a wake-up call for us.

JC: The Oscars just passed, does it bother you, because you've done a lot of comedy, that comedy is never recognized by the Academy?

SM: Oh yeah, absolutely. You find an actor who can do comedy, they can do drama, but if you're an actor who can do drama, it doesn't necessarily parlay to comedy. It's a lot harder to do comedy than drama I think. You know that you're successful in comedy because you can hear them laugh. If you watch a beautiful scene by Meryl Streep, you're not going to laugh you're going to be quiet because she's so amazing. If you're doing comedy, you're going to laugh. That's how you're going to know. It really puts you to the test. I'm not saying Meryl Streep can't do comedy. She's an actress that can do both, but I find that there's a lot of actors that [can't]. Personally, I've always preferred to work on comedy. I would rather spend my hours laughing my head off, getting down into some funky place that it takes me years of therapy to get out of. I just love comedy.

JC: How was the working relationship with you and Jerry Bednob? You guys just seem to hit it off onscreen.

SM: God, yeah. He was like my surrogate, sick, dirty old man father. Jerry's non-stop funny. It's like being with an older, Indian Robin Williams. This guy was just non-stop. We're still to this day very good friends. I was at his house recently. I love Jerry. I don't think I've ever worked on a project where there was so much ease to work with everybody. Everybody just generally loved seeing each other and generally were trying to make each other laugh, everyday, for five weeks. It was a very rare situation where there were no egos involved. It was just a bunch of people who just wanted to have a good time, and they had a camera there and filmed it. That's really what it came out to be.

JC: Were there a lot of scenes left on the editing floor with you and Jerry?

SM: There's tons of stuff that I did and Jerry did...all the actors did tons of stuff. Judd (Apatow, the writer and director) basically gave us an open canvas and paintbrushes and just let us go at it. He just kept shooting so there's so much stuff, and he works on a point of view of improvising. We actually shot over a million feet of film, which is really rare in the film business. The last movie that I can think of that did that was "Titanic." We did enough to make five full-length movies and it was all improvised.

JC: Has there been a discussion of not necessarily a spin-off of Haziz and Mooj, but another collaboration with you and Jerry? You guys would be great in a half-hour sitcom.

SM: It's funny you should say that. It's something that me and Jerry just recently got through doing a pilot. He's my father, and I play one of the two sons. We just got done reading. I don't know where it's going to go.

JC: Unlike Jerry, are you more restrained off camera?

SM: If I'm not in front of the camera, I tend to always be the viewer. I love to watch people do their magic. I've just never been the person who actually does it unless I'm in front of the camera. When I'm in front of the camera or in front of an audience, it clicks and this other part of me awakens. I can feel it. It's like this whole other thing. Then there are some actors like Steve Carell, for example. When he's not on camera, he's very much like I am. He's much more a viewer. He doesn't really do anything. Not that he's boring, but he takes it all in. [When] you put him in front of a camera, it just turns on. I always tend to work that way. It's just more comfortable for me.

JC: How was working with Steve? Everyone says he's a great guy.

SM: I'm telling you. He has to be one of the greatest human beings...him and his wife Nancy (Walls). All the success that has happened to Steve, he deserves double that. It's so rare to find somebody with that kind of genuine humility and kindness and warmth with that kind of talent. Usually, it co-exists with the ego, but he has no ego. He's the kind of guy that anyone would want to have over for dinner. He's just the nicest human being there is, but extremely funny.

JC: I was hoping for some dirt...

SM: He is, though! The first moment I met him. Here's the guy who's starring in the film, who's executive producer of the movie, but he treated everybody on the set including the craft servers and crew members as if those people were his employer. He treated everybody with respect. Every time he received a compliment, he would be very gracious but then just kind of blow it off. He was just amazing. I saw him do so much stuff that didn't wind up in the movie and it's a shame.

JC: Shifting gears, you've done many guest stints on television. Do you enjoy being on the small screen as much as the big?

SM : I like TV a lot, but if I had to be forced to choose between film and TV, I like film just because you're basically with people for a pretty long period of time telling one specific story. Whereas in television, you're with them for a long time, basically telling different versions of the same story. I like to work on a project, and then go work on another project that's completely different. In television, you can work on a show for like, two years, and you show up to the set and the show's been cancelled. At least with film you can finish the movie and then next year when it's a bomb, you're already working on something else.

JC: Getting serious, would you say there are not a lot of strong roles for Indian actors?

SM: It's never really bothered me. It's almost like I was an African American and I went to live in Beijing and started complaining about how there aren't strong roles for African Americans. You have to understand, it comes from the writers. Writers are always limited to their experience in the world. So, until years go by and there are more East Indian writers or people are getting married to an East Indian person or live in India, it's really hard for them to do any character, but a two dimensional character. Like for example, I could not write a great movie about the Jewish struggle. I've never lived in Israel, so I wouldn't know. What I would draw would probably be two-dimensional. So, you can't really hold me responsible for that because that's the limit of my experience. I'm not really concerned with the fact that there aren't any, because I completely understand that they don't understand. It's really our responsibility, as actors, to take what they give us and put some dimension into it.

JC: What about in terms of casting? Do you think there's a problem in Hollywood with stereotyping?

SM: No. Everything in Hollywood is very much like Wall Street. There are ups and downs to every year. Like this year, it seemed there was a lot of great roles for Indian character actors for television market. Now, we'll see, come the fall, if the networks are ready to go with these choices. Like, last year there was nothing, but this year there's a whole plethora of them. It always changes.

JC: Lastly, have you ever considered writing?

SM: Yeah. You know, I'm actually working on something right now. Writing is something I do enjoy very much. I love every aspect of filmmaking, and fascinated with every aspect of telling the story.