How Jordan Peele gave Dev Patel his 'Pretty Woman' moment with struggling 'Monkey Man'

AUSTIN, Texas − A weary-eyed Dev Patel rallied to give a talk at South By Southwest on Tuesday morning after the late-night premiere of his directorial debut at the festival.

“I’ve only had like 30 minutes sleep,” Patel, 33, told a crowd gathered at the Austin Convention Center for the discussion of “Monkey Man” (in theaters April 5). “I’m functioning on Red Bull and truffle fries.”

Patel, who co-wrote and stars as a man looking to avenge his mother's murder, said the idea for "Monkey Man" stemmed from his grandfather’s captivating retelling of the story of Hanuman, the half-man, half-monkey Hindu deity. The plot was also sparked by the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a bus in India, and Patel wanted to make a movie about “fighting for what’s right and what’s good.”

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The “Slumdog Millionaire” star had to put up a fight himself, as making the film was such a process. He “reluctantly” co-wrote the screenplay and “got nudged into the director’s seat.”

COVID nearly killed the movie, until Patel switched filming from India to a studio in Indonesia. He lost his production designer and suffered the death of his gaffer (lighting). Finances were also an issue.

“You see throughout this film, we didn’t have enough stunt men,” Patel said. “So in the final sequences I’m killing the same eight guys” repeatedly.

He dropped to his hands and knees to glue a stunt table back together because they could only budget two. Not to mention the injuries Patel suffered during production. Early on, a stunt man stomped on his foot and broke it, Patel told USA TODAY at the premiere. He tore his shoulder and broke his hand in a fight with co-star Sikandar Kher.

“It was a huge problem to have your hand in a cast for the entire film,” Patel said Monday night. “We put a screw in the hand and the doctor’s like, ‘You cannot put any weight on it or anything. I was like ‘OK, OK.’ And then we carried on shooting.

“We had to change all of the choreo to one-handed moves,” he said. “It was a real process of ferocity and just trying to find a way to get it done.”

The film was dropped by Netflix, and then he received a call informing him that Jordan Peele liked it.

They connected over Zoom, during which Peele asked Patel to tell him everything he’d gone through making “Monkey Man.” After Peele signed on, Universal followed.

“It was like that scene in ‘Pretty Woman,’ when you go back into the shop … with the credit card,” Patel said referencing Vivian's returns to a Beverly Hill boutique that previously wouldn’t let her shop there. “I was Julia Roberts, covered in blood, with a knife.”

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Peele hyped the audience in attendance for Monday’s premiere at Paramount Theatre.

“This is a film that simply demands to be seen in a theater with a huge, raucous audience,” Peele said. “It’s a movie that proves that films can be all things. You can have a movie that tells an amazing story, that has meaning, that has depth, and you still can just kick a bunch of people’s (butts) along the way.”