Hot guy Dev Patel still remembers when people said he was the ugliest Skins star
In an interview with The New York Times, the actor talked about the rough side of being a teenager on Skins
TV News Dev Patel
Dev Patel is amongst the fortunate Skins gen. 1 alumni who managed to break into Hollywood after starring in the hit teen series; he shares that spot with Daniel Kaluuya—who had a supporting role on the show as Posh Kenneth. Patel discusses those beginnings in a new interview with The New York Times. He looks back at his first on-camera role as Anwar, a nerdy Muslim teenage boy who was massively obsessed with trying to get laid even though his friends fared better with girls. Patel talks about the perks of the role; he was able to help his family financially, using his first paycheck to buy his sister a new bed. But there were downsides to being a teenager on TV, namely viewers of the show telling him they didn’t care for “ugly” Anwar at all.
“I was a young kid going on these chat rooms and it was quite brutal,” says Patel. “There were all these lists of who’s the favorite character on the show or who was the best-looking character, and I was always the ugliest, the least attractive. No one liked Anwar. It really took a toll on me personally.”
And yes, Patel has experienced a much publicized “glow-up” of sorts, similar to other fellow UK actors, including Harry Potter’s Matthew Lewis. But Anwar was never ugly; he just looked realistically like any other awkward teenage boy, with a questionable haircut and scruffy facial hair. He didn’t quite fit the mold of heartthrob.
A lot has changed since the Skins days. Patel is now one of the most thirsted-over actors in Hollywood, and that’s actually part of what got him the role as Sir Gawain in The Green Knight (you know, besides being a great actor and all).
“He’s incredibly appealing in every sense of the word and yes, he’s incredibly sexy. I see no shame in wanting to capture that,” says Green Knight director David Lowery in an interview with USA Today about his decision to cast the actor. “I was like, ‘I want to see Dev looking as beautiful as he is onscreen and I don’t want to shy away from that.’ He has such a nobility to him that hasn’t been utilized in films because he’s such an affable actor who’s so quick to break into this boyish smile. It’s what made everyone fall in love with him, but in addition to that, there’s severity to him that’s really captivating.”
But despite his new status as a gorgeous leading man, Patel seems to still struggle to shake off his adolescent insecurities. New York Times reporter Kyle Buchanan brings up to Patel that he has a huge fanbase rooting for him on social media (there are several social media accounts dedicated to stanning him), but the actor interjects with a self-deprecating joke, saying, “All three members of that fan base?” He also talks about being hard on himself when he received accolades for his starring roles in Slumdog Millionaire and Lion.
“I didn’t feel worthy. That kind of speaks to my natural low self-esteem: You’re there with really impressive creatures, the best of the best, and you’re like, ‘I don’t know what I have to offer in this space,” he says.
As for early embarrassing roles, he did talk about M. Night Shyamalan’s disastrous The Last Airbender movie, referring to it as “one of the worst movies I’ve ever done, and I shouldn’t even bring it up, but do a quick IMDb search and you’ll know what it is.” He adds, “I didn’t really flourish in that position. I take my hat off to all those incredible actors that do Marvel movies where it’s, like, big, noisy fans and green screen and tennis balls and whatnot.”
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Just got a weird notification I’ve never seen before, it said “The A.V. Club started following you”. Now I get what I means. It is possible to get ungreyed permanently folks!
Yeah, don’t criticize Tatiana though, that gets you back in the grey
Huzzah!
I’m out of the greys on some sites, but not others, and the whole ungreying process still eludes me. I didn’t care as much for the longest time, but with the way Kinja is acting weird nowadays, I comment a lot less on the other sites because most greys just get lost now that Kinja just disappears them.
In my experience on Kinja, it’s mostly commenting in the right place at the right time to catch the attention of a writer who interacts with the commenters. If a new site is ever launched or added to Kinja, it helps to comment on the first post(s), as that’s when they’re looking to build a reader and commenter base. That’s how I got ungrayed on several sites. It’s possible that the the tech people will do it upon email/ticket request, too, but I’m not sure.
Yup. AV is still the only ungrayed section I have.
I’ve been trying to get ungreyed on the Takeout for like four years now. I’m giving it six more years then finally giving up.
Try asking to be ungreyed on a Lillian Stone post. She seems to be the most receptive over there at the moment.
That just means Barsanti is stalking you
I was in the greys on The Root for years, which I never understood, then one day about two months ago…I wasn’t. I had been commenting the whole time anyway. I don’t know what any of it means. I’ve always enjoyed the site, but will sometimes disagree with a commentary. I assumed you were allowed to do that! Anyway- I’m not in the greys now.
You have betrayed us all! #greysunited
My favorite genre of star puff pieces is the “Hot Person Declaring They Used To Think They Were Ugly.”Yeah, sure Dev. You and Emily Ratitatowski or whatever her name is were regarded as ugos all the time. That definitely happened.
Dev Patel was definitely awkward lanky teen phase until like 25. Which is cool I still am at 31.
lol, you realize this article specifically is about other people insulting Patel’s appearance? It doesn’t really fit into this weird niche of yours.
Stop that! Don’t let facts get in the way of a hot take!
No, this article is about Dev Patel telling an interviewer that he sought out opinions in forums and was disappointed that people didn’t obsess over how hot he was.
I mean, it was the mid-00s, the internet existed and Skins was a popular show. You can look up what people said about him.
The role he was playing on skins was dorky awkward religious guy trying to get laid. He was pretty much the Screech of Skins.
I used to love when Playboy Playmates would say they were picked on in high school because kids said they were ugly, then you’d look at their birthday and they’re nineteen years-old when they’re saying it.
Goldie Hawn was one of those folks. Apparently she was ridiculed mercilessly as a kid despite being in a bikini on Laugh In by the time she was 22.
They really blossomed in that last year! Also, they learned to put their hair down and take off their glasses, which everybody knows turns any mousy girl into a beauty.
I was a film critic for six years, and if I had to watch one more movie where the “Goth Girl” took off her pointy glasses and put on a pink dress to reveal a swimsuit model, I was going to scream. I swear, I could have used the first review and just changed the names. It was the same movie, over and over again.
Um, it’s about how other people said he was.
You do realise that self-esteem is a tricky beast and that anyone can convince themselves they’re ugly regardless of their physical attributes, right? Like, aside from the fact that Patel is specifically mentioning that other people called him ugly, it can be really hard for anyone to feel good about themselves all the time, especially during the hell of insecurity that is adolescence. I imagine that goes double for anyone who doesn’t fit into standard Western ideas of beauty.
I feel like it’s impossible, but this post makes it seem like you’ve never been exposed to how vile anonymous fans of a show can be online. Nothing Dev said sounds made up and given he was a teenager at the time, easy to see how it could impact his self-confidence.And that’s my second point – I think people sometimes think of other people as having no feelings because they have attributes others wish they had (wealth, looks, whatever). But everyone is human. And if you can’t see how being attacked personally online could impact a kid’s self-esteem, says a bit about your ability to have empathy.
Google “Dev Patel Skins”.
He really did look unfortunate and awkward. The haircut they gave him was especially unfortunate, but his whole expression and mannerism were awkward, as was his poor teenaged moustache.I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as he remembers. (Selection bias and all.) But he was 17-18 at the time. A teenager playing a teenager, so he would look extra young compared to all the 25yo you often see playing teens, and all the more awkward. Think back to how you were at 17 and how you dressed and did your hair. Now imagine being on one of the most popular dramas of your home country AND reading what people say about you in the comments.
What about Nicholas Hoult?
I love how he’s so good looking that he can star as David Copperfield or a knight of the Round Table and people have no problem with it because he’s hot.
Dev Patel is amongst the fortunate Skins gen. 1 alumni who managed to break into Hollywood after starring in the hit teen series; he shares that spot with Daniel Kaluuya—who had a supporting role on the show as Posh Kenneth.Nicholas Hoult (X-Men, Mad Max: Fury Road), Joe Dempsey (Game of Thrones) and Hannah Murray (Game of Thrones) would like a word with you…
…they went to the Academy Awards and BAFTA?
Hard to argue that Nicholas Hoult didn’t “break into Hollywood”, the guy have starred in X-Men movies, Mad Max, oscar winning movies, had starring roles, got nominated for Bafta, Sag and Golden Globes and dated an a-list actress.
Kaya Scodelario was also part of gen 1, even though she wasn’t a focus character until gen 2.
Pretty sure they’re saying “spot” as in the thing they are being interviewed on.
Maybe they didn’t mention Hoult because he was already known pre-Skins – from About A Boy and The Weather Man, where he played Nicolas Cage’s son. Maybe other roles I can’t remember.
But being a secondary character in Game of Thrones isn’t on the same level at all. Hoult, Kaluuya and Patel (and, as someone else mentioned, Kaya Scodelario) have definitely “broken into Hollywood” in a way that Murray and Dempsie simply haven’t – Joe Dempsie has basically never been in a Hollywood movie.
I thought that, though to be fair Hoult was also a film star pre-Skins, so arguably he had already broken out.As I said on another article, that first generation of Skins has a really good hit rate (and Jack O’Connell from Generation 2 is also great).
I’m sure he’s a nice guy and all (so he has to be gorgeous? The reasoning here is weird). He has such a nobility to him that hasn’t been utilized in films because he’s such an affable actor who’s so quick to break into this boyish smile. But this? Lol. No thanks; I know enough guys who turned out to be royal man-babies.
I think ‘nobility’ here is more “looks like he could be a knight” than “upstanding citizen and taxpayer.” Contrast this to Ben Affleck in The Last Duel trailer, who looks like someone from Limp Bizkit cosplaying.
“Of Sir Geralt it could always be said: verily, he didst it for the nookie.”
“no thanks”? That’s weird level of entitlement.
“But Anwar was never ugly”So, physical attractiveness is an objective thing, is it?You should at least link to a website so that we can all be let in on what is and isn’t objectively attractive.
I don’t even think he had a “glow up.” He was just super young when Skins started and now he’s an adult. The character also didn’t get the coolest most slick storylines.
I’m not a big Dev Patel stan, but Anwar was def. in the same league or better looking than Chris and Sid. I think it might have been the awkward whispy mustache that did him in. Wasn’t a theme of the first series that Tony could get away with anything because of his beauty? I think it was a genius bit of casting to set Nicholas Hoult (who seriously was otherworldly in his prettiness) against a bunch of teenage boys who actually look like teenage boys (Anwar, Sid, and Chris). Maxie is pretty conventionally attractive too, but his storylines seemed to the side of everyone else’s.
I hope I never have to spend any time with a person who decides, “You know what I’ll do with my time? Go online and tell a literal child he’s ugly.”
To be fair, the people ranking Skins characters by their looks were almost certainly around the same age and literal children themselves.
If the top picture is gorgeous I hate to see what he looked like before. His face and nose are both too long top to bottom, the patchy beard is weird and his eyes are noticeably asymmetrical but they’re literally and figuratively overshadowed by those bushy brows. Since literally anyone can be picked apart in this manner maybe we should just stop discussing subjective things like appearances and sex appeal. Everyone’s sexy to somebody and the sexiest person in the world is disgusting to someone. A major publication repeatedly called an elderly semi-retired actor the “Sexiest Man In The World” when no one thought that was true.Sucks that this guy got criticized in his youth but this teen rom-com “glow up” narrative is played out bullshit. They could find something better for a PR campaign.
I have nothing against Dev Patel. I think he’s a very good actor, and I think he’s reasonably attractive. Like, if I were in a bar with Dev Patel and he said he wanted to take me home and have sex then, yeah, probably, unless he was a douchebag. But I’m really so tired of beauty being equivalent to virtue in such a way that the only way to communicate someone’s virtue is to pretend they’re beautiful. He’s attractive, he is not gorgeous, he is not conventionally handsome in the sense that universally and across ethnicities people generally regard symmetrical features to be beautiful. Why can’t we just say he’s a great actor or a nice guy or is interesting to watch? Why do we have to pretend he had a “glow up” or that his success in Hollywood is due to anything other than his talent?
This is the Sarah Jessica Parker Rule, where in order to make celebrities, who already are privileged above all others, feel secure by telling them how gogeous they are. It’s gross.I say this as someone who very much is NOT conventionally attractive and yet still has an active romantic and sex life because people find me appealing for other reasons and in other ways. The moment someone tells me, “oh, you’re not heavy” or “but you have a handsome face!” I know they are A. Full of crap and B. So bothered by their own shallowness that they have to insist on things that aren’t true.We respect each other by being ourselves and honoring who they are, not by telling them they are pretty to look at.
It’s weird (?) no one mentions that he has South-Asian ancestry and that South-Asian people, men especially, typically are ranked somewhere at the very bottom of whom we consider to be attractive. It’s bogus, obviously, but it really takes a toll on a lot of South-Asian people. (Perhaps even more so knowing that when we talk about Asian people just about everyone doesn’t even think of South Asians.)Dev has grown into a very handsome man indeed, and it’s very encouraging to see him leading these big movies.
It’s weird (?) no one mentions that he has South-Asian ancestry They probably figured that the skin color, hair color and name ‘Patel’ was enough.
That really wasn’t the point of my comment…
Your point may be relevant in the US, but is totally redundant elsewhere. It reflects American insularity.Here in the UK, Dev Patel’s home, “when we talk about Asian people” just about everyone ONLY thinks of South Asians. If anything, it’s the East Asians who get marginalised over here, simply because they are few in number. It’s also quite bizarre to read that you believe that South Asians “typically are ranked somewhere at the very bottom of whom we consider to be attractive” Are you being serious? Whose ‘rankings’ would that be? I could point you to at least 1000 South Asian stars of both sexes who would totally blow your socks off.
Actually, I am in Europe and used to live in the UK. You may have a fair point when it comes to ‘thinking about Asians’ that the UK may be more focused on South-Asians but pretty much the rest of the world, not just the US, isn’t.And, as I said, it’s not my opinion or that I don’t think people with South-Asian can be incredibly gorgeous, or even hot. I know plenty of them and like to think I am not that bad looking myself (with partial South Asian ancestry) but it is a view of the world – especially when it comes to men. It’s an ugly and unwarranted view, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.Even within India self – there’s a multi-billion dollar industry in skin lightening products (the European Unilever being a main supplier) and the big celebrities all tend to have lighter skin, with very few exceptions. There is some change happening, but very very slowly
“teenage boy who was massively obsessed with trying to get laid even though his friends fared better with girls”“Even though” ? Lol.
Patel is now one of the most thirsted-over actors in Hollywood
My new favourite fact about The Green Knight is that the director is so into Patel that he drew fanart of him.
From the NYT story:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/29/movies/dev-patel-green-knight.html
Well, he was the ugliest person in Skins, and he almost certainly still is