Parminder Nagra: Bending It Like Beckham

Who is this beautiful East Indian actress? American and Canadian audiences will soon find out as the mega hit in Europe, Bend It Like Beckham hits screens. Parminder stars as Jess, a teen girl who idolizes British footballer David Beckham and bends a mean soccer ball herself. The comedy, with sports action and romance, has swept the world because its universal theme of following dreams despite obstacles like cultural and gender taboos, hit home with all people. We found beautiful Parminder to be very intelligent, upbeat and thrilled that the little film she so believes in will soon hit America.

TeenHollywood: What’s the film about?

P: Essentially this film is about dreams, ambitions. I play a character called Jess who is 18 and completely crazy about David Beckham and wants to play football like him but her parents think that she should be more of a girly girl.

TeenHollywood: Okay, what is “bending a ball”?

P: I had to spend like two months trying to bend a ball. It’s when you get spin on the ball as you’re kicking it towards the goal. Instead of it going straightforward, it does this clever little bend into the goal. How you achieve that bend is using the side of your foot between your big toe and the instep of your foot and you slice underneath the ball to get a spin on it and you lean back as far as you possibly can to get a good lift on the ball and it makes this beautiful curve toward the goal.

TeenHollywood: Jess is at a crossroads in her life. What kind of young woman is she at this point?

P: She tries to be honest most of the time but there are certain family constraints where she has to slightly bend the rules which is kind of what the title also explains as well. She completely blossoms on the pitch [on the field] I think. She is very feisty, very hungry to succeed and to do her best.

TeenHollywood: This was your first major role. How did you get involved with the film?

P: Gurinder (Chadha,writer/director) had seen me about four years ago in a play called “Oh Sweet Caesar” in London. She’d seen a few plays I’d done but introduced herself to me after that one. Then she’d seen me in a Bollywood musical called “Fourteen Songs, Two Weddings and a Funeral” and approached me after that film and said ‘I’ve got a footballing project that I’m working on’. I remember reading the first page of the script which is now, me digitally playing with David Beckham being my ally. I thought this was the funniest thing seeing this Asian [Indian] girl doing a header into the goal. I just loved it. I found the whole script really touching and warming and inspirational. There’s politics in Bend it Like Beckham but it’s not rammed down your throat. The story is leading the way.

TeenHollywood: Did you know how to play?

P: Me and Keira [Knightley, who plays her best friend and teammate] both had to learn from scratch. We did a lot of practicing every day. Like doing an hour and a half of aerobics every night. It was a killer. We were practicing lots of little flashy moves. Through those sessions we bonded quite early on. By the time we got into making the film, we’d become really good friends at that point.

TeenHollywood: What about the story appealed to you?

P: It was this girl’s dream to achieve something. I think the film has done so well everywhere in the world because of its universal appeal in terms of a person doing well, a person making good. Also a person with not the greatest of backgrounds to support her, she’s achieved through that.

TeenHollywood: You character Jess has a burn scar on her leg. Was that make-up?

P: No. It’s my own burn. I realized that I’d have to wear shorts, shorts..legs, legs, scar. It’s going to be shown? I asked my agent what do they want to do about this? And he said ‘I don’t think you’re going to lose the role just because of that’. So I talked to Gurinder about it and she asked me what had happened. In the film it’s my sister that had saved me but in real life it was my uncle. [The burn was caused by a cooking accident]. She incorporated it in to the story and it made it a lot more personal. But it was just touched on and not overemphasized.

TeenHollywood: What kind of message and role model is the film putting forward?

P: I had a story about this little girl from a slum in Calcutta and I got all choked up. She said, ‘I want to play like that girl in Bend it Like Beckham. Touching and inspiring somebody on a deep level to that degree, people were so touched that they paid for her education so she’s able to play football. When the film was shown in England, the Football Association got so many phone calls from young girls saying ‘we want to play football’. It’s inspiring kids to become a part of something to discipline themselves and to know that they can have fun with it as well.

Football is very good for that and creating a team spirit. I hope that American audiences will take away the same kind of thing. I’ve sneaked into screenings and there has been a whole mixture of people there. They’re all sitting there laughing and crying at the same things. Parents come out being inspired saying ‘we’ll allow our kids to do anything they want now. We don’t want to hold them back’. Kids come out and say ‘yeah, I really want to be a part of something and I’m going to go for it’. I hope that’s the overall message that comes out of it.

TeenHollywood: Do you relate personally to having a big goal?

P: Yeah. Her dream is to play football and go to America. My dream was to do a film and I got one better which was do to a lead in a film which was fantastic. A film that has done well. It’s empowering in terms of that. And she tries to keep her integrity and I’d like to think I keep that as well. Just to keep doing good work to the best of my ability and that, through my work, I can be inspiring to people. In terms of that it’s very similar.

TeenHollywood: What’s next for you?

P: It still feels quite scary because it’s a different kind of pressure now. You’ve done a film that’s done so well and then it’s kind of thinking ‘how do I maneuver now through this? What’s the next thing?’ My aim in my head has always been that I want to do good solid work, good strong characters, feisty characters. Not just being seen as young and demure. Something that taxes the brain slightly. “Bend It” taxed me more physically.

In the last year I did three great projects. I did Twelfth Night for (British) Channel 4, I played Viola in that and that was brilliant for me. Very different from Jess. I had to pretend to me a young man and had to deal with the language of Shakespeare not having done that before. I lapped that up. I did a small part in a Miramax film Ella Enchanted where I played Cinderella’s best friend. I just finished a two part drama on Channel 4 called “Second Generation” which is kind of based on King Lear with a little Romeo and Juliet thrown in. She’s a modern feisty, bold character, very temperamental. If I’m going to learn something and move forward, that’s a good reason to do it.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.