John Abraham says critics write him off after every film: ‘Half of them have come to me for work as writers’
Actor-producer John Abraham, who was last seen in Attack, recently spoke about actors carving their own space in the film industry and how they should collaborate, instead of competing with each other. In a chat on Siddharth Kannan’s YouTube channel, John said that “I think I am the Brad Pitt (of Ocean’s Eleven).”
John spoke about him as he was talking of the ensemble cast of the film where no one is stepping on each other’s toes and everyone has their own role to play. When asked about actors overshadowing each other in films, John said, “I always give one example, of Brad Pitt in Ocean’s Eleven. I think I am the Brad Pitt, where George Clooney, Matt Damon are performing and Brad Pitt is having a burger in the back. I feel every actor has got his space. If you are in front of the camera (and take up some space), I think those days are gone. No one cares. In fact, it is my aim as a producer to collaborate with other actors. I want Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, and Varun Dhawan to work with me. I want every actor to work with me. My thought process is different.”
During the many press interactions before the release of Attack, John was very candid about accepting the failure of Satyameva Jayate 2 and how it was not director Milap Zaveri’s fault but his own. Here too, John spoke about the same and said that everyone had approved the concept of the film so it would be wrong to throw Milap under the bus.
When asked how John feels when people write him off after the failure of a film, the Dhoom actor said that he doesn’t read comments. But earlier in his career, John recalled he was written off all the time. “They keep writing me off after every film. And there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s okay. My point is very simple, all these people who have written me off today probably half of them have come to me for work as writers. Maybe they need some help. I try and help as much as I can. They say ‘len, we are very sorry, we said what we had to because we didn’t know you’. They have their own reasons, could be unhappy marriages, or they wake up unhappy. It’s okay. I understand. But now when they come to me for work, it’s nice. I try and help them and say ‘len, you could have been good critics, you are failed writers but no problem, any help that I could give from my side, I will I whatever I can’.”
John has announced that they are already working on the sequel of Attack. The actor will next be seen alongside Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone in YRF’s Pathaan.