PremiumExclusive! Jayasurya: I don’t like being stuck in my comfort zone as it pulls me back from doing more
The John Luther actor tells us why he picks characters that allow him to further explore the artiste in him
Last Updated: 10.27 AM, May 28, 2022
For Jayasurya’s latest release John Luther, he picked a role a police officer that he has done several times before. But what made it stand out was the cop suffers hearing loss midway through the investigation and this challenged the actor to come with ways and traits to perform the role without it being redundant.
In an exclusive interview with OTTplay, Jayasurya says he now enjoys these challenges and that’s what he looks for when he is pitched roles. “There are characters where I can perform being in my comfort zone or I can do something extra. If you are in your comfort zone, you cannot do more or explore further, and that’s why I don’t like being stuck in that box,” he says.
Jayasurya explains his point by citing an example of a scene from his next release Eesho, which is directed by Nadirshah. “In a song cut for Eesho, I remember there were a few workers and my character had to watch something with them,” he says. “For that shot, the workers were wearing their yellow jumpsuit but the costume department gave me a new one. No matter how much you try to fade it, it doesn’t become as dull as the one that the workers wear; it won’t have the grit, the mud or the grease. So, I asked one of the workers to give me his uniform. He told me, ‘It’s been days since he washed it’. I said that’s fine and wore that uniform.”
The State Award-winning actor also says that by now people who have worked with him are used to this facet of his. “What’s more surprising that even before I did this at the sets of Eesho, its cinematographer Roby Varghese told the crew that I won’t be wearing the new costume and would take the uniform of a worker. That’s the equation between the cinematographer and me as he has been seeing me do this from Luka Chuppi,” says the actor.
Eesho, which is scripted by Suneesh Varanad and also has Namitha Pramod and Jaffer Idukki as part of its cast, will be a direct-to-OTT release. It will mark Jayasurya’s second OTT film after Ranjith Sankar’s Sunny last year.
“It will be a different type of thriller and a different film in Nadirshah ikka’s career,” concludes Jayasurya, who had previously worked with the filmmaker in Amar Akbar Antony.