How Adnan Malik crawled in the skin of Romeo for 'Cake'

'I remember the first day when I wore his wardrobe, people engaged with me very differently,' the actor penned


Entertainment Desk May 29, 2019
PHOTO: ADNAN MALIK/INSTAGRAM

Asim Abbasi's family drama, Cake, made waves in Pakistani film industry last year. From being country's official submission for Oscars 2018 to garnering praises worldwide, the Adnan Malik, Sanam Saeed and Aamina Sheikh-starrer was nothing short of a hit.

As the film finally releases on Netflix, Malik shared how he crawled in the skin of his character Romeo in the film.

“Romeo had been written so well that I wanted to do full justice to the role. Asim and I had a lot of discussion about Romeo’s person, history and psyche," he wrote in an Instagram post.

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"We created a backstory for him. I spent a lot of time with people similar to Romeo in environs that were frequented by them but were totally alien to me. (Including a day with a Christian male nurse on the job and a day in central prison in Karachi, to try and envision what his time in prison must have been like. The cramped quarters, claustrophobia and smell of stale, watery daal on a steel plate stayed with me)," continued Malik.

Recalling his first day on set, the actor shared, "I remember the first day when I wore his wardrobe, donned the moustache, and walked down the street near a commercial market. I noticed that people engaged with me very differently."

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Malik continued  how he "looked at myself from their viewpoint and realised that I was no longer Adnan Malik; I was Romeo. The reaction of people to the persona of Romeo emboldened me to get fully into his character. It was a profound experience."


But it wasn't just the way Romeo would walk and talk that was paid attention to. The Sadqay Tumhare star commented on how Abbasi had a whole idea on how the character would look, what would he wear, how his hair would be done.

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"A lot of attention was paid to Romeo’s look as well," Malik added.

The actor shared on how "Asim had written him as a young man who wore checkered half sleeve shirts with jeans." But Malik shared how he suggested the jeans should be switched with a pair of pastel coloured, bell-bottomed pants.

He continued, "I did not think that jeans went well with the character and found a pair of pastel coloured, bell-bottomed pants, which my father wore in the sixties, for Romeo. They gave the character a retro look."

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Malik then added how Asim, Samya Ansari, Aarij (stellar team!) and he decided to give Romeo a moustache and add a cut to one of his eyebrows to allude to a more complicated and, perhaps, dangerous past.

"I think that the effort that was put into getting Romeo’s look right was rewarded very richly. He looks like he is from another era, and, in many ways, given his values, he really is," went on the actor. "His world view and sincerity are from an era far gone. In many ways, Romeo embodies nostalgia in the film."

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However, in an earlier interview with The Express Tribune, Malik had revealed that he initially turned the role down for the film.

"I felt that the role that I was offered, that of the male lead, Romeo, was relatively small and not properly fleshed out. I declined to play Romeo the first time because I was looking to do meatier roles at the time," he had shared. "Romeo is very different from me and the characters I have played on television. Initially, I was not sure if I was the right person to play Romeo but Asim had tremendous confidence in my ability to bring the character to life."

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