Key Points
John extensively prepared with director Shivam for nuanced diplomatic role
Worked closely with acting coach Saurabh Sachdeva to develop character
Film explores parallel professional and personal lives of diplomat
John spoke with IANS in the run up to the film's release, and broke down his process of approaching his titular character.
The actor told IANS, "There is a very important line in the film that says, 'I am a diplomat by profession, not by character'. So, my character in the film is living two parallel lives. What Shivam (the director) has successfully done is he has shown the life of a diplomat. But, parallelly he has also shown what my character is going through in his personal life. Coming back to how we developed this character, Shivam was very clear from the start. He said, 'I do not want to see John Abraham, I want to see JP Singh'. Now, we all know that I come with the image of being an action hero, I fight on screen".
He continued, "Now, for a director it is challenging to get me into that mould. Yes, we went into that mould in 'Madras Cafe', we went into that mould in probably 'No Smoking', and in 'Parmanu'. So, we have been into that space successfully. What Shivam did was, after we had readings, he put me on to Saurabh Sachdeva, where I started developing myself in terms of the character, JP Singh. Body language, little, little things, dialogue delivery, everything had to be JP Singh.
John further mentioned that Saurabh Sachdeva also met JP Singh, and studied him, and he said, "How do I make this guy into this guy?".
"So, we spent 2 to 3 weeks on just developing me into JP Singh. Then we went back into reading. So, when we went on set, we were 99% there. Then Shivam used to just brief us on the scene but he reminded me after every shot, like after the interrogation scene, he used to push me to think like the character", he added.
Produced by T-Series, 'The Diplomat' is set to release in cinemas on March 14.
