And that’s not how you do business and it’s not how we should communicate with each other. The sauce on what I said was so thick that there was only one interpretation to take from it. “You want me to do it the way you wrote it, like, even this line about the goats?” He said, “Can you just do it the way that I wrote it?” So I go and I do my no accent and my improv. And I told my manager, no, there’s no way I’m going to do this. Utkarsh Ambudkar: So I have been in auditions where they wrote a line in their show about an Indian teacher with a strong accent saying that he would sell 10 goats to get a woman like that in his classroom. Question: What does that conversation sound like in the room? Now I can walk into a room and call it out, and people kind of have to - they accept it. Around 2018 is when people realized, asking me to do an accent when it wasn’t period or geographically appropriate was offensive. I have been acting professionally since 2005. I improvised an Indian South Asian spin on that role in the room. That role was written for a light-skinned black actor. Mindy Kaling saw “Pitch Perfect.” I got offered the role of her little brother, Rishi, on “The Mindy Project.” How did “Pitch Perfect” happen? Let’s rewind, guys.

I was in a hip-hop group, a trio, much like the Beastie Boys.

So, music and acting have always gone hand in hand for me. Like, we don’t do computer nerds and we don’t do sidekicks. Utkarsh Ambudkar: As a South Asian man, the roles that we get are very finite.Īnd I say no to quite a few things. Once again, as part of our Canvas series, he reflects on how he has adopted to Hollywood and Hollywood has adopted to him. Nick Schifrin: Finally tonight, a Brief But Spectacular on taking on stereotypes in Hollywood.Īctor and singer Utkarsh Ambudkar’s latest film is “Brittany Runs a Marathon.”

Pitchperfect marathon