Man of Mistry

You can count on one hand the number of soap actors who’ve made it big in Hollywood. Brookside’s Anna Friel is one, Neighbours’ star Guy Pearce another.

Now former EastEnders’ actor Jimi Mistry is set to join that rare club and what’s more, he could outshine the lot.

The talented actor has not only landed the lead role in the big budget romantic comedy The Guru, his leading lady is none other than Hollywood’s hottest babe of the moment Heather Graham.

The pair share some pretty raunchy scenes together and Mistry admits he couldn't believe his luck.

“I just kept thinking, ’Oh My God, you’re Heather Graham, you were in Boogie Nights and Goldmember’,” he grins. “But she was really nice and told me working on The Guru was a great experience for her. We had a great time doing this movie.”

In the film, which opens this week, Mistry plays Ramu a naive young Indian man who moves from Delhi to try and make it big in New York but ends up working in the porn industry alongside sexy starlet Sharonna (Graham).

Although his porn scenes with blonde Graham were dealt with in a light-hearted way Mistry still couldn’t afford to be modest. “I didn’t really have any problems whipping my towel off in front of her,” he laughs.

“I just thought ‘This is a great break for me, I’m going to give 150% to the job’, so if that meant whipping my towel off in front of Heather Graham – in fact 50 other crew members as well – then that’s what I had to do. You have to be quite fearless.”

Mistry’s naked ambition seems to have paid off. The Bollywood-meets-Hollywood movie has been a massive hit in America and the star is being touted as the next big thing.

However, Mistry, who is the son of an Asian father and Irish mother, is taking it all in his stride. “You have people suddenly treating you very well and very nicely, but I don’t particularly take that too seriously,” he says with a nonchalant shrug.

“I’m just there doing a job and I just want to keep on working. People put these labels on you, but the reality is getting work is a challenge. There’s a lot of actors out there and not that many jobs, so I just want to get another good job.”

There’s no doubt though, this has definitely been Mistry’s year, not just on the career front. During filming of The Guru he also managed to fit in time to get married to his girlfriend Meg and became a new dad.

“There was lots of things going on in my life,” he says with some understatement. “I got married the day before we started filming in New York, and Meg had our baby girl six weeks later. That’s why this movie is very special to me.”

In fact, things happened at such break neck speed Mistry admits he hadn’t even thought of a name for his daughter and ended up asking New Yorkers for help - via their daily newspaper.

“We did a sweepstake with the cast and crew who all put names into a hat and the person we picked would get a special prize,” he explains. “The New York Post picked up on it and ran a ‘Name that baby’ article,” he adds. “I hasten to add we didn’t pick any of the suggestions and ended up choosing our own and calling her Elin.”

Mistry says fatherhood has given him even more drive to be a success but admits, even during his EastEnders’ days he was ambitious for the movies. The star, who played gay doctor Fred Fonseca in the hit soap, sensationally quit the show after just eight months, but says he always had a game plan.

“I’ve always had a very strong belief about what I wanted to do,” he explains. “When I was in EastEnders I did my job for what it was worth for a period of time and that was it.

“A lot of people can’t make the leap because when you’re in something like EastEnders it’s not just an acting job you’re taking on a whole career and all the things that come with it, such as celebrity.

“You either go along with it and it’s very difficult to get out. I didn’t go with that celebrity thing and I moved on. I had a belief and was prepared to make sacrifices and take risks. It’s not been easy, it’s been tough getting there and I still want to carry on working,” he adds.

Mistry, who lives in London, got his first big screen break in East Is East, the hit British movie about a dysfunctional Asian family. However, he says he doesn’t want to be typecast as a token Asian actor and admits he’d never watched a Bollywood movie before making The Guru.

“I’m mixed race, but I was brought up in Britain,” he says. “I had to learn and watch those films and go to Bollywood dance classes. It was all really new to me. I didn’t grow up on Bollywood films, even though people assume I did. When I was younger I saw myself as a little Michael Jackson. For a school assembly once I did the whole rendition of Thriller,” he adds with a laugh.

Now back in Britain Mistry is refreshingly honest enough to admit he loved the whole Hollywood experience and wouldn’t hesitate to work there again. “If Hollywood beckons I’ll go for it,” he says excitedly. “I love taking risks. If I’d wanted to stay in any one thing I would have stayed in EastEnders, it’s a good job and you’re paid well.

“But that’s not what I want. I’m having my ‘pinch yourself moments’ a little bit now, but I had to get there myself, none of it has been given to me on a plate.”