'Iron Man 3' Star Sir Ben Kingsley on Accents & RDJ

Absolutely delighted to have Sir Ben Kingsley here. Great to see you.

Lovely to be here.

We actually have had a Sir here before. Rowan Atkinson has been in the Young Hollywood studio.

Oh, really?

And kind of a half a Sir. You and McGregor was here. He was knighted but in France, so it doesn't really count. That's Legionnaire. It's exactly what it was. But you don't actually refer to them as a Sir. You actually you call them a doctor, from what he said.

Oh. Okay. Which can cause all sorts of problems because people think you're actually trained

No. No.

I'm not. No. I'm really going to confuse you. Okay. Because, uh, I have two honorary degrees from, uh, doctorates from two English universities. So, I'm actually Doctor Doctor Sir.

Oh, uh, no, but but I also We need to change the title behind you.

I have I have also have an Indian knighthood, which is a Padma Sri. So, I'm Doctor Doctor Sir Sri Ben Kingsley.

Wow. So, Iron Man 3 is a wonderful, wonderful movie.

I'm glad you like it.

I'm not afraid of you. No politics here. Just good old-fashioned revenge. And I read that you said that you you weren't that familiar with the franchise before. And so, you were able to go into it fresh, and you appreciated that.

Yeah, that's true.

How did you make it a fresh take on sort of like the classic villain role?

I think that, um, you're entering into a a an enterprise, a a team that could call themselves the Fresh Take Team, anyway. Because, uh, whatever whatever they do, they continually refresh. Even on the set filming a scene, Robert Downey Jr. will say, "Come on. I think, you know, uh, we can come in at this way." Always, um, taking risks of a lesser or greater, uh, size and always, um, refusing to dumb down the audience, which I think is brilliant. Um, never making Iron Man 2 a copy of Iron Man 1 or Iron Man 3 a copy of Iron Man 2. They're all They're all spanking brand new, glittering, shiny, new films with, uh, that wonderful thread, uh, running through them, of course, of the of the central theme.

Well, you have a wonderful scene with with Robert in in the film. And I read that the crew actually broke into a spontaneous applause after you finished filming. Is that true?

You see, the way that's entered history is classic Robert Downey Jr. , because in fact, it was Robert that led the applause. He actually turned to the crew and started applauding and turned back. So, it was his general

Now, was he applauding for himself? I presume he was applauding for you.

He said my name. Yeah. And applauded. Yeah.

And did he use all the Sirs, all the

Oh, no. Bless him.

I read recently that you just met Daniel Day-Lewis in the airport. And You sat down. First of all, I want to know why I wasn't in the lounge that day. Because I would have been inching closer and closer to you guys. Trying to Were there people that were trying to listen in on your conversation? I imagine there were. You created some tension.

I I I don't know. I wasn't aware of that. But, um, but we we did, I know what we were discussing, because he said, rather like myself, that there are moments They're fleeting. They're rare. But there are moments when you're watching yourself on screen where you have completely let go of the self, and you do not know how you arrived at that sequence on the screen.

So, this this film you have an American accent, a version, a kind of a version of American accent, because you're speaking in a in a way that most Americans wouldn't ever expect an American to speak. Exactly. Do you have a favorite accent? Because you're so adept at accents. Do you have a favorite one to do? I'm kind of baiting you a little bit.

I quite like doing Indian accent because, um, I love India, and I love it.

Fantastic. It's the head. It's the head movement. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I I don't know what you're talking about. And the wrist. I don't know. There you go.

And I read that you're a great gardener, great chef.

I'm not a great gardener. I have a great gardener. Oh, I made a terrible mistake once. My gardener I I thought I was cutting chives, uh, which are a lot of onion onion-tasting herb. And there were these chives outside the back door. And I cut them, and I chopped them up, and I chucked them into some potatoes. And I I said to my gardener, "Um, Darren, it's great that you planted, put those herbs outside the back door, those chives that I put in my potatoes." "Those are Dutch irises," he said. "You chopped off my Dutch irises." So, I killed his plant. No.

Yeah. Would they be tasty?

No. Didn't work. I wouldn't recommend it.

And last but not least, in the film there's a fortune cookie reference. Yep. When you were young, if you had read in your fortune cookie, "You will be knighted by the Queen. You will have a Hollywood Walk of Fame star." All

It's all a surprise. I'm sorry to interrupt, but I know. It's all a total surprise. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sit here's a surprise. Pinch pinch. Right.

I love it. Well, pinch me, because this has been an absolute pleasure.

Oh. You're delightful. Thank you.