Dev Patel as Prince Zuko in The Last Airbender, playing at a theatre near you

How was it working in Manoj Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender?

It was just so much fun. Just letting your hair down and going on to a massive set and learning some great martial arts moves. It was really interesting for me to go from something like Slumdog Millionaire to something like Airbender. It’s like a $15 million to a $150 million with CGI. We did two weeks of the film in Greenland which was spectacular and that was an incredible place to see. This is my first film in America.

What’s Night like to work with?

He’s great and he’s fabulous with children. He is like a big kid at heart sometimes and he is so energetic on the set. The good thing is that he can poke fun at himself. So when you see him with the little kids like Nicola and Noah he is really down with them, and it’s like they’re talking to one of their best friends. And I think it really helps — he really connects with his cast and he gets great stuff out of all of them.

Tell us about your character.

I play Prince Zuko and he’s a young prince of the Fire Nation. My character is struggling as he is trying to find another character called Aang, a Avatar which means he has the power to harness all four elements and he’s the potential saviour of the world. My nation is basically the evil nation trying to take over the world.

So you are playing a bad guy?

In essence. He’s quite confused — he’s a young prince and he’s trying to take on the role of someone very regal and powerful but inside he’s just a confused boy. So it was very interesting for me to play.

Does he have powers too?

He does. He’s part of the Fire Nation so he is a fire-bender. So if there was a candle on this table he could whisk it up and throw it across the room (laughs). And the interesting thing about the film actually is that the elements associated with each character are quite similar to the personality of each character. I’m a fire-bender and I’m very aggressive and eruptive and quite un-controllable. It’s interesting to do a film like this because we are expressing ourselves physically a lot through fighting and things like that.

Are you trained in martial arts?

Yes, I’ve done Tai Kwon Do since I was about 10 years old and that really came in handy. It really helped.

What disciplines were you using for the film?

For the film I was using northern Shao Lin mixed with a few of my own moves that I knew. I got there and the stunt guys just said ‘show us what you’ve got’ and I showed them a few things. And they liked that I was very tall and have very long legs so they wanted me to really show that off. And the Fire Nation people all had these beautiful samurai-esque costumes. We were all in black, and you could throw an amazing move and it looked very, very cool.

Was it a physically demanding film to make?

Yes it was. It was really challenging. For me it was a tricky character to play. He’s an antagonist to an extent and he reminds me a lot of Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars and I’m a bit of a Star Wars fan (laughs). He has this constant struggle of choosing the path between good and evil and he doesn’t know which way to go and in his mind he wants to capture this boy Aang.

But he has this wonderful relationship with his uncle who tries to teach him about being young and living life to the fullest and enjoying. He tells him that he doesn’t need to do this mission to regain his honour; he can just be young and enjoy himself. So there’s that constant battle within him.

What were the sets like?

The sets were spectacular. I had my own ship! They build my own ship — how cool is that? I mean, a lot of it was using my imagination but Night was great and he tried to make it as real as possible for us so he made my ship and things like that, so that we had something tangible there to work with.

It wasn’t all green screen and that’s why we flew to Greenland and did some of the scenes there. I guess he could easily have done it with CGI, using the computer to put in the icebergs but you can’t beat going there and seeing the icebergs, seeing the steam come out of our mouths and feeling the wind on our faces. You simply can’t replicate that. It certainly helped although I’ll admit it was freezing (laughs).

Did you know the cartoons before you took the part?

I’d seen it a few times. I stumbled across it myself. Actually, I saw a few episodes when I was in India filming Slumdog Millionaire. I was flipping through the channels and I came across this really cool cartoon where the kids were doing really cool martial arts moves — and I love martial arts so I decided to watch it. It’s a really good cartoon.

I remember when I got the role I bought the first season DVD and watched the lot and I can see why it is so successful because it’s really funny and there is also a very adult aspect to it where the characters are really conflicted.

What have you been doing since Slumdog?

A lot of travelling and some charity work. I went back to India and I stayed there for a couple of months. I went back to Mumbai. I have lots of friends out there from the film and I really fell in love with it when I was making the film and I was determined to go back there again. It felt natural to go back there.

Were you able to move about in India without being bothered?

It was strange because it was much harder than I thought. I kind of assumed it would be OK because there they are into their own Bollywood actors and I’m certainly not that so I thought I would go there and have fun. I was surprised because even the rickshaw drivers, the people working on the stalls in markets, they all knew my face. They would call me ‘Hero’ and ‘millionaire’ and in Hindi they would shout ‘there’s that boy from Slumdog Millionaire... Everyone knew me by my face although I’m not sure how many knew my name.

How has Slumdog changed your life?

Well, Danny Boyle plays a big part in that because he ignited this passion for acting that I have. For someone like him to have faith in me, an absolute nobody, really gave me the confidence that I needed. He taught me a lot, he was very patient with me and he gave me that passion for acting.

You seem to be very grounded, how’s that been possible?

I think it’s quite simple, really. Everyone says it’s hard to stay grounded but I don’t think it is. I don’t know how I could change really. Maybe it’s because of my family too. Working on a film set for hours and going home to your Mum is always grounding. And I still have the same friends from school and things like that. We were protected during it all.

Is it true that you’re dating Freida Pinto?

Yes. It’s great to be with someone who understands what I do. She’s not only a great girlfriend but she’s also a great friend and a great support in what I do.