Actress Sarita Choudhury was beside herself when she found out that she was cast to play the love interest of Tom Hanks in the film "A Hologram for the King," which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
The veteran actress opened up about why the film was so important to her, and it all came back to her parents.
"To do a movie with someone like Tom Hanks that when you tell your dad, your dad knows who Tom Hanks is - it feels like you're finally giving back to your parents," the 49-year-old actress said. "It's like you've actually done something that they can recognize and there's something in me that makes them super proud."
"A Hologram for the King" is based off Dave Eggers' novel of the same name. The film is about an American businessman named Alan Clay, played by Hanks, who travels to Saudi Arabia to sell a holographic teleconferencing system to the king of the country and ends up falling in love with a doctor while there.
"Alan Clay is that American for whom life has been turned upside (down) on his head," Hanks said.
Choudhury got her big break in the film industry starring opposite another big name actor, Denzel Washington in the 1991 movie "Mississippi Masala." The actress revealed that while she has been acting for almost 25 years, she still gets excited about her work.
"I feel like you grow as an actor, but you still feel that same excitement when you get a role and you still feel shocked to get to work with Tom Hanks or Denzel," the former star of Showtime's hit show "Homeland" said. "I feel like that side of me hasn't changed much. You just can't believe you're given that opportunity. The only that changes is that I feel more comfortable on sets."
Choudhury said she "loved working" with Hanks and called him a "present" and "funny," and the feeling seemed to be mutual with Hanks.
"With Sidse [Babett Knudsen] and with Sarita in this, we spent a long time just hanging over food, going over the lines, talking about the scenes and then, of course, all the rest of our lives end up getting folded into it as well," Hank said.
"The great thing about having to play [with] a girl you gotta kiss and you gotta hangout with and look all dreamy into their eyes and stuff like that is that even before you get to that, you're really good friends, and then right after that, you're friends with somebody you went on this kind of like magical journey," the Academy Award-winner continued.
"A Hologram for the King" is out now in theatres.
