GQ (July 2010)

The obvious question that comes to mind before meeting Dev Patel, the young star of 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire, is how the rookie has been changed by success. On a bright spring morning in Los Angeles, the answer arrives as soon as Patel bounds into a suite at the Sunset Tower Hotel to discuss his second film, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender. Now 20, Patel has the same puppy-dog enthusiasm, the same mama’s-boy manners and the same big ears that endeared him to fans around the world.

That’s not to say he was entirely unaffected by Slumdog, which won eight Academy Awards, including best picture. “I grew up five years in the space of five months,” Patel says. “I thought that I was a big comedian in school, but here I was working with adults and they took me seriously. That gave me a confidence I never knew I had.”

It shows. Although still thin as an asparagus, Patel wears a navy shirt over a filmy T-shirt that gives him a hint of geeky sex appeal. He’ll likely never be a true Hollywood bad boy, but at least he has developed an edge.

For his role in Airbender, Patel needed all the dark charisma he could muster. The movie, out in July, is a megabudget superhero epic, and Patel plays Zuko, a troubled prince who must choose between good and evil in his quest for fatherly approbation. “He’s got an Anakin Skywalker kind of thing going on,” says Patel. The part had him performing martial arts (he’s a real-life black belt), playing with fire and strutting around in major makeup like a “badass,” he says.

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Also, here are some photoshoot images that were taken for W Magazine.

Session 027

To celebrate the BAFTAs, InStyle filmed the most brilliant British acting talent. Go behind the scenes on our exclusive shoot with Bonnie Wright, Dev Patel, Jamie Campbell Bower and Rupert Grint.

InStyle.co.uk

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