Moviefone Editorial

Tag: @movieid:20067182

  • Ben Kingsley Drawn to ‘Honest’ Humanity in ‘Learning to Drive’

    Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson star as a mismatched pair who are worlds apart in “Learning to Drive.” Kingsley is a working class turban-wearing Sikh driving instructor living in Queens to Clarkson’s Upper West Side literary critic. But the driving lessons they share take a backseat to the lessons in life that they learn through each other.

    “I was very drawn to the genuine heart of the film—true honest reflection of us as human beings and how we bump into each other,” Kingsley tells Made in Hollywood. “It’s all coalition—it’s all accident.”

    Indeed, it’s a series of coincidences and life happening by accident that inspired “Learning to Drive.” The rom-com-drama is based on writer Katha Pollitt’s 2007 book, of which the film shares the same title, that features introspective essays on a range of topics, including her experience taking driving lessons from an instructor—a man from the Philippines.

    Kingsley says that sincerity and the “great writing” of stories is “dependent on real-life accidents.”

    Continuing, he emphasizes that the connection between the characters is serendipitous and raw. “Not manufactured. Not compartmentalized. Not sentimentalized. A quite unpredictable conclusion for the people involved.”

    “I was very drawn to the genuine heart of the film—true honest reflection of us as human beings and how we bump into each other,” he says. “It’s all coalition—it’s all accident.”

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  • Ben Kingsley Tackles Prejudice in ‘Learning to Drive’

    Throughout his 40 years in showbiz, Sir Ben Kingsley has seen how racism plays out in the real world and on the big screen. And in his latest role as a turban-wearing Sikh driving instructor in “Learning to Drive,” he hopes to open a dialogue about the prejudices that exist in post-9/11 anti-Muslim sentiments.

    “I have studied horrendous human prejudice against other people and it shocks,” Kingsley tells Made in Hollywood. The Oscar winner has starred in three Holocaust films, including “Murderers Among Us,” “Schindler’s List” and “Anne Frank: The Whole Story.”

    In “Learning to Drive,” his character teaches a woman, whose life is in chaos after she’s abandoned by her husband, how to drive in New York City.

    Clarkson’s literary agent Wendy asks Kingsley’s Darwan, “Why do you teach driving?”
    His response echoes the prejudices that many people who wear religious garments face: “For a better job I would have to take off my turban and shave off my beard, but this is how I know who I am.”

    In another scene in the film, Darwan faces verbal abuse by a group of young men who call him “raghead” and Osama Bin Laden, confusing the Sikh for a Muslim.

    Kingsley hopes the comedy-drama will be a teachable moment for moviegoers. He continues: “I feel whenever we’re given an opportunity to say, ‘Look at what people can do to each other and then look at what people can do for each other,’ as a story teller, just present it to you and say: ‘What do you think?’”

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  • Patricia Clarkson Is ‘Such a New Yorker’ That She Has Not Driven for 30 Years

    It’s been years since Patricia Clarkson got behind the wheel. So it was a matter of life imitating art for her role in “Learning to Drive,” which saw the actress receiving lessons from Ben Kingsley, who plays her onscreen driving instructor.

    “I sort of learned to drive again because I had become such a New Yorker,” the New Orleans native tells Made in Hollywood, admitting that it had been 30 years since she had last driven.

    The 55-year-old shares that taking the driver’s seat in the film was rather favorable, both introspectively and pragmatically.

    “What I realized—in the process of learning to drive—you have to look, listen, hear, pay attention,” she says. “You have to see to the world in front of you—you have to be absolutely present.”

    In “Learning to Drive” Clarkson stars as a literary agent who, abandoned by her husband, must now learn how to drive. Kingsley stars as her instructor, a Sikh, who is readying for an arranged marriage.

    “Learning to Drive” is in theaters now. Watch the trailer below.

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