Mumbai: Carl Andrew Harte, in an interview with New9, talked about portraying the character of the notorious terrorist David Headley. Speaking of how he was cast in the blockbuster film Dhurandhar, he revealed the opportunity came to him like any other through his agent. He also spoke of how he never thought he looked at the terrorist until he saw himself on the monitor.
“Well, the usual way that castings happened. Uh, probably not too much different to any other casting I get through my agent. They contacted my agent. Honestly, I can’t remember doing an audition. It was quite some time ago. I’m not trying to say that I can’t act, but largely, I was cast on my looks. And that’s just the way it is. Sadly, I don’t look like Hrithik Roshan or Virat Kohli. I look like the worst terrorist, David Headley,” said the actor.
He added, “In fact, I never thought that I looked like David Headley until I was on set and I saw myself on the monitor. And now I say, yes, I do look like Headley, but it never occurred to me that I looked like David Headley.”
Further, Carl talked about his reaction to being David Headley on screen. He said, “I sighed. I went, oh, okay. I mean I’m used to doing negative roles, but I really had had my own negative uh negative thoughts about David Headley because the thought that someone who plans an attack is bad enough.”
The actor added, “Any kind of an attack on human beings. But if I were playing someone who attacks an opposing army, I’d say yes, I can understand the man, he’s got some honour, but a man who plans attacks against men, women, and children and people just going about their daily lives and in their own city, minding their own business. That’s really quite odious, isn’t it? It’s disgusting. There’s nothing apart from revulsion that one can feel. But when you’re playing a role or when you’re doing any kind of research on a character, you don’t want to come from a position of hatred or revulsion. You have to do a job.”
With inputs from Bharti Dubey