When people look at actors and film industry, they only see the glitz and glamour of the profession and may believe that acting comes easy. However, actor Kalki Koechlin believes that acting can be as easy or as hard you want to make it. She explains, “Acting is not as easy or difficult as people make it out to be.”

She adds, “I think certain characters require more than others. There are characters I didn’t prep for at all. For example, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013), I just jumped in and had a great time shooting. But characters like Laila in Margarita With A Straw (2015), I had to prepare for six months. I did nothing else but that (method acting) completely,” says the 38-year-old. The actor will be seen next in the film Goldfish, with actor Deepti Naval, who plays her mother suffering from dementia.

A question that is posed to the actor regularly is one about her method of acting. And she says, she never knows how to respond to it. Regardless of the type of character, a good actor, Koechlin feels will “always try and add layers to it.”

Talking about late actor Irrfan’s method of acting, she says, “I remember the stylist for The Namesake (2007) told me about Irrfan’s character where he played a father — a pretty regular character. But, he told the stylist to add a heel to one of his shoes so that he would walk with a limp.”

It is roles like these, where an actor is allowed to prove their mettle and allows them to not be stereotyped into a certain role or character but the Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) actor says one has be patient and “wait as these roles don’t come by very often”.

“You have to detach yourself and be able to say ‘I do want to work, but can I wait for the right thing to come, which will shake myself up and challenge me as an actor’,” she ends.