Jordan Peele wants to cast Dev Patel in his next movie

Dev Patel and Jordan Peele are already making plans to work together again.

The two filmmakers teamed up for the brutal action-thriller Monkey Man, Patel’s directorial debut about a young man seeking vengeance against his mother’s killers. Patel directed, co-wrote, and stars in the film, an ambitious (and delightfully bloody) epic that establishes him as both a rising action star and director.

The film also had a long journey to the screen: Patel has wanted to make Monkey Man for the last decade, with cameras finally rolling in 2020. But after the shoot wrapped, Monkey Man seemed destined to languish on a streamer — until Peele screened an early version. The Get Out and Nope director immediately signed on as a producer, pushing to get the film a theatrical release through Universal Pictures.

Peele and Patel say they’ve admired each other’s work for years, and they quickly bonded over their love of action and their shared experiences as actors-turned-filmmakers. Besides, Patel tells Entertainment Weekly, it only made sense for them to work together, especially when Peele’s company is called MonkeyPaw Productions. “Obviously, there’s a serendipity in that,” Patel says with a laugh.

Before Monkey Man hits theaters April 5, Patel and Peele sat down with EW to explain why they fought to get the film on the big screen — and how they’re already planning their next collaboration.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Dev, what was the genesis of this story? How long have you had this revenge action-thriller kicking around inside your head?

DEV PATEL: I’d always been obsessed with action cinema growing up, ever since I watched Bruce Lee as a child. Enter the Dragon, that kind of was my gateway into acting, actually. Then, my grandfather used to tell me these stories whenever he used to come into town. He was born and lived in Kenya, and he would tell me these stories of the Indian mythologies and the Ramayana. There was this one character Hanuman, who’s this half-man, half-monkey, kind of simian superhero. And I was fascinated by it.

Growing up in the U.K., I’d kind of run away from my culture in a way. It was something that I would hide and maybe feel ashamed of, or worried about being bullied. This was something that I was like, ‘God, this is so cool, and I would love to be able to share it.’ It’s got so many parallels to comic book iconography, like Superman and all those guys. Slowly, it just started to build and snowball, and for over 10 years, I just kept adding and adding until it became this weird little gremlin of a movie.

JORDAN PEELE: It’s pretty crazy that you took a myth and you brought it to such a gritty place, where you’re doing action on such a creative, inventive level. You took an ancient story and made a film that activates my Blackness on an unconscious level. As an audience member, it makes you want to stand up in the theater and shout. He really did the thing.

PATEL: I mean, if you make a movie about the mythology, it’s going to be a $200 million epic like Lord of the Rings. I was like, we can draw parallels to these characters and distill it down into this grimy, gritty world. We can make it so much more tangible, plausible, and relatable to today’s world and politics.

Jordan, what was it about Dev’s vision that made you want to get on board?

PEELE: I came into the process when the film was already shot. He had a version of it, and he was feeling defeated for several reasons. I saw the film and immediately just wanted to jump through the Zoom and give him a hug. As a director, I know how hard it is to do what this man did and how hard it is to do it in one’s first time as well. All I wanted to do was say: “Look, this movie needs to be your version of this film. It needs to be the version that you set out to make. My goal would be just to help you realize that.” And he took that and ran with it.

PATEL: I am an annoying fan of Key & Peele. [Laughs] The first time we met and had dinner together, I had to kind of shut up a bit. I think my producing partner Joe was kicking me under the table, like, “Chill out!” But [Jordan] is so versatile as a performer, and I love what he did with that show and what it meant to me. There were many nights I would watch it with my family, and it brought us all together. My dad was cracking up. But to step out of the light of something so great and take such a bold swing at something else… I think we really bonded and could relate. I think he saw what I was trying to do, too.

PEELE: I’ve always wanted to work with him as an actor and direct him. He’s one of the performers that I feel is a hundred percent consistent in his roles and his effort.

PATEL: Well, there’s a few not-so-good ones. [Laughs]

PEELE: But I’ve known we were always going to do something, and I respect so much the choices he’s made in his career. He hasn’t gone and done someone else’s action movie. He saved that for his own.

I’m curious: Dev, you’re such a fan of the action genre, and you competed as a martial artist growing up. Were you eager to pursue action roles before, and it just wasn’t happening? What was your journey with this genre?

PATEL: Yeah, I mean, this has been over 10 years in the making. Early on, I could never get access to a role like this. If I was going to feature in an action film, I would be the comedic guy on the side, the tech dude, whatever. [But] to break the mold, you have to enter it. For me, it was like, “Okay, I’ll show them what we can do.” I’m going to give them some culture. I’m going to highlight some of the most vibrant, interesting, and ancient art forms of the culture that even I didn’t know about. And I’m going to use that as the tools of this revenge story. But yeah, there were times later on in my career, once I did some other films, where I got offered some stuff. In my head, I was like, “No, I can’t do it. I’ve got to wait for Monkey.”

What was it like to be directing and acting at the same time, especially when executing these really intense fight scenes?

PATEL: A lot of it is just insane amounts of prep. But the actor in me is very instinctual. Part of the process is: How can I get the guys on the other end of that camera to feel what I’m feeling? I was in the stunt room every morning with these amazing stunt performers who are just throwing themselves into it. We kind of found our own visual language to give the action. We spoke about the choreography: The film’s called Monkey Man, and it’s about an underdog. He’s spitting. He’s using his teeth. He’s a caged animal. So, we wanted it to be jagged and ferocious.

PEELE: I just want to add: One of the keys to any great action hero, especially one that’s doing martial arts, is how that hero fights. And it’s true: You have one of those unique physicalities that is just beautiful to watch.

PATEL: Gangly. Awkward. [Laughs]

PEELE: Call it what you will! [Laughs] But it’s sort of unique in the genre, and it does represent the underdog, but it also has this incredible power and dynamism.

PATEL: Dynamism: I like it. I’ll take it, dude. I’ll take it.

Jordan, you’ve been a big advocate for not just getting this film out there but getting it on the big screen. Why was it important to you to show this film into theaters?

PEELE: Well, that’s my thing. I just believe in the theatrical experience. I believe that film can be at its most transcendent when you’re with a bunch of people you don’t know, and you’re all going through the same thing. This is one of these films where we’re going to get an audible reaction. There’s going to be tears, there’s going to be cheers, there’s going to be laughs, and there’s going to be applause. And I love for an audience to get to feel the contagion of that.

PATEL: It’s like that scene in Pretty Woman. I remember when we got dropped by our studio. You know when she goes in with the credit card at the end, back into the store? It was like that moment. It’s like he was Richard Gere, I’m Julia Roberts, and I’ve got his Amex.

There are a zillion different inventive fights in this movie, but I have to specifically ask about the kitchen scene. Dev, what do you remember most about filming that sequence?

PEELE: I love that one.

PATEL: I broke my hand in this other fight before that, and I was like, “Damn, I’m way better in the stunt room’ because I could use two hands. But with this broken hand, everything changed to one-handed choreo, which was difficult. We found this kitchen in this hotel, and it looked like a Wong Kar-wai kitchen, but it was too small. So, I begged [the hotel] to let me break this interior wall so we could continue the camera movement through it and create these longer segments. I was like, ‘It’s going to be great! Open plan kitchen!’ And they were like, ‘Uh, okay!’”

PEELE: You’re a more charismatic man than I, to convince them of that. [Laughs]

PATEL: We managed to do that, and it was a wild, wild fight. He uses a kettle, plates, forks…

PEELE: A microwave door!

PATEL: It’s fun.

I know you experienced some injuries on this film. What happened?

PATEL: First, it started with some broken toes. It sounds minor, but when you’re doing this kind of action where you’re stopping on a dime and you’ve got a couple of broken toes… That was mad. And then, on the first action scene, it was in this bathroom where the M.O. was, “Use me as a ragdoll and break every piece of porcelain and cubicle in this bathroom with Dev.” [Laughs] We were going for it on a slippery floor, and there was water everywhere, and I got an eye infection. You can imagine the stagnant water there, with the crew walking through it. It was mad.

But I broke my hand. I knew it was bad, but I didn’t say anything. But it started ballooning up, and when we finished the day of the shoot, I got an X-ray. The whole film was going to collapse. I was like, “How are we going to have a cast and be able to afford to paint that out on this budget?” We went online and found this doctor in Jakarta that puts screws in the bone, and we got on a private medical jet that could keep our COVID bubble secure. He put the screw in, and he was like, “You cannot put any weight on this. No more than a couple pounds of pressure.” And I was like, “You got it, doc!” He was like, “If this thing bends and I have to take it out, it’s going to be like taking a bent nail out of wood. Your bone is just gone.” I was like, “I got you, doc. Copy that!” and I just went straight back into the scene. [Laughs] That was the film! We just carried on going.

PEELE: Insane. And you had no director to complain to as an actor!

PATEL: Yeah, I had myself in the mirror to answer to. Literally, I came back, and I was throwing myself at this window and bouncing off it the next day. You could see everyone being like, “Oh no.”

PEELE: “This guy’s insane. The boss is crazy.” [Laughs]

Speaking of wild stunts, not only do you slit a guy’s throat with a knife in your teeth, but you also bite a guy’s nose off.

PATEL: That happens twice. Two bites, same nose. The first one’s like a nibble.

So, what does a fake nose and fake blood taste like?

PATEL: Well, the fake nose tastes like a real nose. You just don’t bite hard. It tastes like a sweaty stuntman. It’s salty.

PEELE: See, this is what I’m saying. From a performance standpoint, I don’t know if another director is convincing Dev to do these bites.

PATEL: Even the other producer was like, “Two bites, I think, is too much.” And I’m like, “I’m fighting in a brothel with a dude with an ax! I have handcuffs on! It’s already a whole thing!” [Laughs]

Jordan, you’ve built your career in the horror genre, but would you ever want to direct an action movie?

PATEL: You would crush it, dude.

PEELE: Well, thank you for saying that. My action film would probably not be as ambitious in this way. It would be a different incorporation. But what I connected to about this film is that Dev didn’t stop himself from indulging in all the gifts that these genres can give us. I’m inspired by him, and I think I’m definitely going to be calling him to help me do some action. I mean, what I need to do is just cast him. And then I’ve got an amazing action director in my lead role!

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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Related content:

• Dev Patel on his 10-year journey to make Monkey Man: ‘Early on, I could never get access to a role like this’
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